Dead on Delivery
by Dr. Bross
Summary: No one gets a break in the Koprulu Sector. Not even a nobody like Walter Raleigh. He thought he was getting the easiest job of his life. Instead, he set himself up to meet the nastiest Zerg and Protoss forces in the sector...
1. Chapter 1: Walter Raleigh

-Starcraft

--Dead on Delivery

---Chapter 1: Walter Raleigh

If you ever hear someone offer you a job to do something relatively simple, you need to shoot him or her in the face and hide their body in someone's closet. They're just tricking you. What they really want to do is kill you in some horrible way you didn't see coming. No one ever gets an easy job handed over to them. Never. It doesn't happen. You have to remember this. I'm practically begging you. Because if you don't, you're just gonna get screwed over somewhere down the line when you begin to think how lucky you got to have such a smooth ride. Well, hell, that's nothing. That smooth ride, is actually plopping you right down in the graveyard.

I learned this lesson on a planet called Arid Col. I guess they called it that because whoever found it landed in the middle of a great big desert with no life anywhere. Well, those lazy bastards forgot to check the other five continents on the planet that looked like some damn rainforest. Then again, no one really cared about Arid Col. In fact, this planet sucks so much, not a single Zerg or Protoss ever bothered traveling to it. That's how pathetic Arid Col is. It's so boring, not even the Zerg could stand it. Now when that alien plague doesn't take the time to wipe something out, you know it isn't worth anyone's time.

I bet not even you have heard of it. Ha! Yeah, that's what I thought. Probably don't even believe it exists hearing it from me. I got nothing to my name really. I never served in the Confederation, or that crazy group led by the Raynor guy. No, I'm not even from the UED's side of space. Walter Raleigh, just some poor sap looking for a break that doesn't exist. Hell, it's space! What the hell am I talking about? This is the same place where Zerg peel the flesh from any human they get their hands on. This is the place where the Protoss could brainwash you and make you act out Hamlet if they even knew what the hell that was. This is the same place where you can't even trust fellow Terrans. It comes from all sides I tell you.

Phew, what the hell was I thinking? Well, money I guess. Yeah, it had to be the credits I was looking for. And when someone offers you a job to drive a truck with fuel (or so they say) from one city to the next with miles of desert in-between for 500,000 credits... Hell, sign me up! I can do that! What's gonna happen anyway? This is Arid Col! "The planet the Zerg forgot" as I've heard it in some local bars. Heh, yeah, easy as pie. You know, I could buy some cheap unarmed Wraith for that kind of money. I could fix it up, and go atmosphere hopping. And let me tell you, that is some **fun **shit right there.

But wait... I almost got ahead of myself here. Yeah, like where I got this fun job offer. Where I ran into a merc group consisting of UED wannabes. Where I almost got my goddamn head chopped off by an Ultralisk! Where I... hell... I better just start right now while the alcohol is still in my body. You never know, I might sober up and keep my mouth shut. And you wouldn't stay around for that would you? No, I didn't think so. So yeah... time to start the show.... yeah... Started in Dry Drop. Some dusty town on the edge of the Burnside desert....

Dry Drop was real low key. It was one of those colonies that seemed like a good idea... and then everyone just dropped the site and left. I saw four buildings max in that place. A bar. A repair garage made from a Machine Shop left over from some Terran Factory a long time ago. An inn, where I had lived most of my less-than-stellar life. And the Starport. The only thing keeping Dry Drop from becoming an ancient artifact. I heard it used to be some UED camp before the Zerg hung them from the Battlecruisers they rode in on. But then that would mean that Arid Col actually had some attention on it at one point, and that doesn't sound right. I like the colony idea I had a couple seconds ago. Makes more sense.

I was having a good drink at the bar with some guys passing through. They were wearing those gargantuan Marine outfits that went standard with any guy with a gun. Most said that it did everything to keep you alive when you had a gunfight. Hell, it even pissed for you if you didn't have enough time to tend to your bathroom needs. A guy like me living in a half-assed spot like Dry Drop didn't have enough money to buy a ride out of there, so I had no new technology most Terran factions were packing to ward off whoever pissed them off. Well, I had this old ass revolver. You know, the six shooter kind, you have to open a chamber to load up. Hey, don't laugh!

It didn't work on guys who had gunned down Zerg of course... for obvious reasons. One time, I pulled it on this Marine grunt and made him laugh so hard he fell to the floor. Luckily for me, I began to laugh too and convinced the guy I didn't pull it with the intent to shoot him. Which I did. But judging by his good laugh, I figured it I might as well blown my brains out with the thing. Oh yeah, and that was another good part about the revolver. At least I could kill myself so the Zerg didn't use my body to blow something up. Not that would ever happen on Arid Col. But you still couldn't help but think about it.

Anyway, I was at this bar, and sticking out like a sore thumb. With my brown dirty hair, hazel eyes. One ugly brown coat with black pants and a gray shirt. They were the style of the time at one point, but now they were just like the rest of my wardrobe. Constant reminders that I needed money really bad. I also had some sunglasses... Thought I'd look cool or something. But ah... you should know me. I try too hard sometimes. Least they kept the damn sun out of my eyes when I walked across the street. And that's what they were originally designed for, weren't they?

It was at this bar that this guy in a black suit sat at the table I was at and began to share the moment with buying a drink of his own. Before I knew it, we were talking details about some job. I had never seen the guy in my life. He had some slick black hair, thin frame glasses and a salesman's smile and appearance. But judging by his clothes, he was probably a pretty important person to someone. With the Terran Dominion on it's knees and the Protoss licking their wounds due to a major Zerg offensive a couple weeks ago. I bet he worked for some mining guild or some other random faction. There's so many of them nowadays. Anyways who cares. The guy looked like a fuggin' businessman. Talked fast, flashed a good smile, and always pressed you to make a hasty decision.

"What are we talking about again?" I said seeing my glass was empty.

"I want you to drive a truck. People told me you know the area well."

I couldn't say that wasn't true... but damned if it was a whole hell of a long time since I've seen anything vehicular I could touch without getting shot at. That's the only way to get out of Dry Drop. Fly or Drive. The desert would swallow you in two days if you tried to walk it. That's why I had a job at the inn where I lived, maintenance or just an all around fixit guy. That didn't require me to go very far. Normally I would care very much about keeping it. Until this guy pushed a sum in front of me.

"I'm willing to offer 500,000 credits and an escort to accompany you."

"Why's that?" I laughed, thinking this guy was jacking around with me.

"It's a long drive. Desert does some strange things to people. Besides. I'd hate for you to say no. After all this time. I was hoping I'd get someone now to drive."

Took me awhile. Maybe it was the booze, to realize he was dead serious about the job.

"Wait wait... you want me to drive a truck across the desert to the next town?"

The next town was a place called Anchor Rock. That place was real busy. Almost city like stuff. Still on the borderline of colony, but it saw more action than this place.

"Is that so hard to believe? Look, I can't use a drop ship. Because the Zerg have done extensive damage to the Terran Dominion main forces. Pirates, two-bit thieves, maybe even the Protoss would be content to interfere."

"The Toss'?"

"During these times, who knows that the hell is going on. Everyone is a target. At least, I know with a straight drive. The only thing you worry about, is staying on the road. Besides, last time I checked, using trucks to move things along was a dying past time. No one is going to be looking for you out there."

Hey, the guy was making sense. We had interplanetary delivery companies. Usually when someone said a truck, you thought it was slang, for some spaceship. But this guy meant a truck truck. One of those old ass semi's with a trailer.

"By the way. My name is Derringer. Samuel Derringer." He said with his hand out.

"Walter Raleigh." I told him, while accepting the handshake.

We maneuvered around the iron tables and the poorly lit bar room occupants to go outside into the burning sun. The bar was the last building before you walked into the desert. The asphalt road ran on forever, it seemed like the only damn thing that the sand couldn't bury. The rest of the buildings were lined up in a row with the exception of the inn, which was across from the bar. Anyway, we walked across the street to this dinosaur of a vehicle sitting in the inn's parking lot.

Now keep in mind, the parking lot was reserved for vultures and space ships. Seeing something as dusty and as long as this semi in front of me was pretty damn surprising. The front looked crappy enough. The windows were almost covered with dust, the bumper was almost falling off, and most of the running lights along the top of the cab were busted.

But hell, then there was the actual trailer.

The trailer was state of the art. It was stark contrast to the cab dragging it along. Stainless steel, warning strips, complicated looking metal tubes and plenty of lights to make even a Science Vessel nerd squeal in delight were all part of this perfect little package. Damn man, the thing was making **noises** as we walked up to it. You half expected it to say hello and make a couple of soft drinks for the both of us. But seriously, this was some high-tech shit right here. It reminded me of all those Confederate laboratory stories from a while back. Judging by the iron monstrosities it rolled on, I'd say it made the truck an eighteen wheeler easy.

Whew, did I forget to mention the shape it was in? It wasn't some boxcar-like set up, it was like something liquid-like. Like um... um... a tanker! Yeah, that's it! It was shaped like a tanker or fuel station for a Battlecruiser. Like a cyanide pill some desperate mofos choke down so they don't get taken alive by Zerg. You could find a ladder on back, and when Samuel Derring-what's-his-name let me take a look, I was pretty sure whatever I was going to haul was sensitive stuff. So, you can imagine my next question was...

"What's inside?"

"Fuel. Actually, it's more of an experimental fuel source. Using a combination of minerals and Vespine Gas. We're hoping to use this sample to make alternative energy resources. So we aren't so picky about setting up landing zones and campsites around geysers and mineral deposits."

Yeah... whatever. All I had to know was that it was important and that it wouldn't blow up if I hit a bump in the road. He seemed to laugh at that.

"Explosion? No, I don't think so. This trailer is designed to withstand a Zerg Scourge attack. It's tried and tested."

I had made my way up to the cab and opened up the driver side door to take a gander at the ancient speedometers and all that. To my surprise, they had given the whole inside of the truck an overhaul. It had tons of gauges to display the condition of the trailer hooked up back. Lots of stuff I didn't really understand right off the bat. Alls I knew is that when a red light flashed, you were screwed.

"Looks complicated." I said while getting out.

"Don't worry. That escort I was talking about has an expert on the system."

He snapped his fingers and three guys in white just popped out of nowhere. I think it was somewhere out from behind the back of the trailer. Anyway the and approached Samuel and I. Judging from the armor they were packing. I'd say there was a Marine, a Firebat and one of those assassin types... what'd you call them? Phantoms? Geist? Wait a sec... Oh yeah. Ghosts. The guys and gals with the scratchy throat and the sinister sounding voices. Damn, his gun was big. And whatever goggles he wore covered his entire face. At least the Marine and the Firebat you could make out. The only thing you had to look at the Ghost guy was his trio of green lights and occasionally his mask's laser pointer.

You'll have to forgive me for glossing over the ghost guy. Usually you don't see them unless they're about to kill you. And since I was being hired to drive the truck, I figured I had all the time in the world to look at him. I heard they can go invisible. That's cool stuff. I also hear they paint targets for nuking stuff. Now that's just so cool, you can't even begin to imagine...

"It's not that great." The ghost muttered, seemingly to himself.

Huh? Hey... wait a sec...

"Walter, this is Crick," He pointed to the Marine. "Orange," He pointed to the Firebat. "And lastly, Scratch." He pointed to the Ghost.

Crick had his visor up on his suit, and was currently smoking a cigar. That's typical I guess. No surprises there. Oh wait... weren't Firebats supposed to be raging smokers? I can't remember. Anyway, the thing I remembered most about him, was his impossibly straight teeth, and how white they were. His eyes kind of drooped down and gave you the impression he was bored all the time. Good thing too, those brown eyes of his could have stared a hole through the wall. The dude was as bald as an eagle though. I couldn't see a spot of hair on his head, at least from my view with his helmet on. Who knew? And more importantly, who cared?

Now, this Orange guy struck me as a newbie at the Firebat suit. Why's that? I could still see his face. There wasn't any cinder or ash or dirt from torching people or things at close range. Tan skin to begin with, so I guess it didn't matter. He was a bit more enthusiastic than his Marine buddy and the blue eyes really made you want to look this guy in the face. They were bouncing around the place as Samuel did the introductions. Hell, it seemed to me like he couldn't wait to torch something with his shiny new suit. Of course, there's nothing wrong with burning things. But I ain't no pyromaniac either. Just to set that record straight.

They tried to give me a hand shake the best they could with their bulky suits. But when I got to the ghost guy... I don't think he was interested. Can't say I was in a hurry to shake his hand either. He might cut it off or something...

"So, these three will be accompanying you across the desert. I can't really say who's in charge judging by armaments..."

"I got a revolver." I spoke up.

There was an awkward pause as we all kind of glanced at the Gauss Rifle, and the Plasma-based flamethrowers and the Canister Rifle and then back to me. The guy with the six shot revolver.

"Cool. Heh heh." Crick snickered.

Screw you man... I should have said it... but I didn't want to get our trip off to a bad start.

"So please listen to the experts here, Mr. Raleigh, and you'll make it through just fine. Just don't be surprised by any changes or what-have-you during the trip."

Okay. Fair enough. They weren't gonna shoot me. They had to keep their hands free to operate their kick-ass weaponry if someone tried to shaft us on the way over.

"Raleigh huh? Just don't touch anything on my suit, punk." Orange said jokingly.

Before anymore could be said, a Dropship inbound soon killed any chance of us hearing each other talk. We had to wait as it did a quick flyby and soon settled down on the Spaceport. Samuel checked his watch and gave us a nod when the engines died down.

"Well. I'm glad we worked something out. I must be off. I have to tell the management we've settled things down here. Gentlemen, hope you have a good trip."

He walked off toward the Spaceport as we got even closer to the front of the truck. I think we were already trying to figure out where everyone would sit. Obviously I was up front. But whether it'd be with a Ghost or Firebat or Marine was still in question.

"So, Raleigh. You see any action?"

That was about the time I noticed how calm and collected Crick sounded. The guy was real laid back. Almost as if he was your best friend or something. It was pretty different compared to Orange, who sounded like a con artist or something.

"Yeah... I saw these two flies get in a dogfight once. It was pretty intense."

Score. I made Crick and Orange laugh. Scratch didn't react. He just kept looking at me. That was to be expected I guess.

"We're all ex-UED. That won't bother you will it? Just figured we'd get that on the table before getting in the truck."

"Ex-UED? I thought the Zerg killed all those guys."

"Apparently not, since we're here." Orange grinned.

They could have been lying. I wasn't sure... and I really didn't care. I was still wondering who'd I sit with. I didn't want it to be with the anti-social Ghost who could probably read my mind or something. So as I was sweating about how to break the ice. He'd be listening to me sweat about breaking the ice. So I'd actually be annoying this guy the whole trip without saying anything and...

"I'm not sitting up front." Scratch said suddenly.

Hey... wait a second...

"Cool man. Keep your com on. We'll talk." Orange said.

Scratch turned and walked toward the back of the truck. Where did he think he was going to ride?

"Scratch rides on the trailer. Don't worry. He's done plenty dangerous stuff before. Surfing on a truck isn't any big deal to him." Crick explained.

By the time we had all piled in. Crick took shotgun, while Orange took up the space in-between me and his Marine friend. The truck was pretty wide. So if you're wondering about how he fit in all that, there was really no mystery. When I adjusted the side view mirrors... (yes, that's how old this piece of junk is, it has side-view mirrors instead of cameras...) I almost forgot Scratch was sitting on top of the trailer and it nearly freaked me out. If I saw right, I think Scratch shook his head as I reached for the ignition switch and jiggled it to get the truck running.

"Well, okay guys. Here's to the open road."

And with that, we were off. Of course, had I known better. I would have turned the job down and quickly snuck on the next Dropship to another colony. Because I never figured I'd see such a savage place, like that desert I was about to drive the truck right into. Hell, not even Crick, Orange, or Scratch imagined what we had gotten ourselves into...

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Pit Stop


	2. Chapter 2: Pit Stop

-Starcraft

--Dead on Delivery

---Chapter 2: Pit Stop

Holy Zerg-on-a-hot-tin-roof... That desert was Satan's skillet. Even Mr. Marine Crick was sweating it as we made our way further and further into dead man's land. Through the mirror I could see Scratch adjust his goggles every now and then, and I was placing bets in my mind that he'd take the thing off sooner or later. Now, Orange was living it up to my right. This guy lived and breathed heat. It didn't seem to phase him in the least. In fact, he cracked a couple jokes about how it wasn't hot enough. I threatened to roll the windows up and create a greenhouse effect, but Crick wouldn't let me.

"You guys ever been in such a damned hot place before?" I asked as we could see miles and miles of desert in every direction.

"Maybe Korhal, course that was awhile ago."

"Oh yeah, Korhal. Hell yeah man. Those were the days. If the sun didn't get you, the heat left over in the desert sands would." Orange reminisced.

"Yeah, that planet was such a shit hole." Crick sighed after a time.

Even on Arid Col you could hear stories about Korhal. Where the old Confederate goons wasted the whole planet with nuclear missiles so they didn't have to deal with any one bitching about the way they ran things. Rumor has it you can still bite the dust due to radiation, even though it was like forever since those things detonated. Now all you had left on that planet was... sand... rocks... wasted remains of pretty much anyone who tried to live there. Well, except Zerg. But they could live anywhere, so they don't count.

"What do you think Scratch?" Crick yelled back, successfully neglecting the com link between the three.

Big surprise. Scratch kept his mouth shut. But I guess that's why he was a ghost. They're trained to be silent, not to mouth off every five seconds.

"Yeah, he's still acting like a real Ghost. Don't talk to anybody unless it's really important."

"Member' that time when he used to talk all the time?" Orange began. "Talked until that one guy shot him in the leg when he was on an operation. Shut up since and knows how to stay that way."

Crick let out a hearty laugh and slapped the truck's door a couple of times. Then the heat got oppressive again, and we quieted down. It was probably five minutes later when we reached some mountains. Oh boy! A scene change. How about that? Yeah, slowly the desert wasted away into rocky terrain. The truck had no trouble tackling the inclines, and before we knew it, we were shooting through a canyon. At that point, the road had kind of slipped away. You could tell someone tried to put asphalt down, but the terrain or the heat kept him or her from getting the job done. Then there was the skeletons. None human, but plenty of animals.

"Yo Scratch. Stay alert man Looks like we're heading through a place with some scavenger animals or something." Crick warned.

Hm. Never thought about that, and I was tempted to roll up the windows... but whom was I kidding? I was #$% hot man. No way, I needed the breeze to stay away from heat stroke zone. But I did start to push a little harder on the pedal, so we'd get through the canyon faster. That was wishful thinking.

"Huh?" I muttered.

I was looking pretty hard a couple miles up the road. I swore I saw some flash of metal in the sun. I had my hand over my eyes to act as a cheap visor. I knew I saw something. I wasn't going crazy. Crick took out his cigar that had gone out a while ago and also began to look ahead. He set it on the dashboard so his hands would be freed up to help him lean forward.

"What the hell is that?" I asked.

Up ahead, at the end of the canyon, was a pair of Goliaths acting as roadblocks or something? They didn't have their Autocannons pointed in any one direction, but it was their simple presence that made me get that bad feeling all over. I checked the rearview mirror to see if anyone was coming up behind us. I had a feeling a 180 might be in order. The closer we got, the more crap I could make out among the Goliaths. They had a Siege Tank man! A real live Siege Tank! They also had some grunts too. More guys in Marine outfits. Some Vultures... hell, it was an army.

Crick and Orange could easily see me grip the wheel in apprehension, but didn't say anything. What could I do if they had a Siege Tank? It could go into Siege Mode and blast us as we tried to flee. The range of a Shock Cannon was legendary. I heard some could shoot miles out and leave nothing-left standing. There wasn't anything I could do except slow to a stop right in front of the two Goliaths and stare out through the windshield. The guys standing around like statues began to slowly move into a half circle around the front of the truck. I flipped the truck into reverse, but before I could pound the pedal, Crick stopped me.

"Hold on there." He told me.

I watched as he got out of the passenger side and walked into the center of the half circle they'd set up. Orange took Crick's cigar off the dash and began to smoke it himself. Now, I was a tad more worried than before, seeing as how Orange didn't seem to care his buddy was going to stand up against some Goliaths and a tank by himself.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Smoking. What's it look like?"

I looked back toward Crick. What the hell was going on?

"Hey you assholes. Clear the road, we're trying to get through." Crick yelled.

Now Orange and the whole crew in the way joined in a steady laugh. Laugh? One of the guys in what looked like some Commander's outfit stepped through the crowd and went toe-to-toe with Crick.

"God dammit Private. How many times I gotta tell you to use rank when addressing a superior officer?"

"Yeah yeah. I forget things sometimes."

The Commander gave Crick a good whack over the head.

"Keep this crap up, and we'll forget **you **out here."

Another round of laughs, well, except me and the commander dude. I'm just sweating my brain out as Crick puts on a stand up comedy hour out in front of the guys who look like they aim to hijack our truck. Of course, that's when Orange decided to speak up.

"Come on. We're just jacking with you. These are our guys. Notice we're all in white?"

Screw all these guys... I would have hit him... if he wasn't packing twin flamethrowers.

"That's not funny man." I told him. "You never said you had a whole army with you."

"Well, we didn't want to draw attention to that town back there before we got on the road. Relax, it's gonna be all convoy-like."

Orange went ahead and explained to me the rest of the outfit they worked with. The commander guy's name was Fahren. No telling if that was his last name or first, it was the only name I had to go on. Fahren used to be a Kel-Morian guy until the UED moved in and started whacking all their business partners. Orange mentioned he was a bit too greedy, and that's why he was kicked out ASAP. Turns out it wasn't too bad of timing for that, since some Zerg forces re-arranged the Kel-Morian's asses shortly afterward. He picked up some scrap left over from that big Zerg offensive I was talking about and began to build up his own crew.

Now they're all mercenaries, and this Fahren guy was their boss. Heh, this guy had the nicest goatee you'd ever see. So much so it almost looked cheesy. Not to mention he was 7 foot something, and towered over everyone else. Then there was his stare. The cold callous stare you'd expect from a serial killer or something. When he talked to someone, like his men or Crick, it was like one of those dark monologues from movies when you know someone is going to die very soon. Thank god he didn't talk to me. Cause I'd pee my pants or something.

It might be too late, but to make a long story shot. We had a convoy set up. A Goliath in the front and the back. The tank led the way and the Vultures acted as a scout crew. They'd check back every now an then in theory. The other Marines and Fahren would follow the rear Goliath in a topless truck. I couldn't say I felt much safer. Because if Derringer didn't say I'd have the whole planet's military resources following me at every turn. That got me thinking...

"Hey, if you got all these guys. Why am I driving the truck?"

I remember asking this question as we left the canyon and reached another endless stretch of desert. Crick was back in the shotgun position, and was currently trying to wrestle his cigar out of Orange's mouth.

"What?" He asked while trying to cradle his gun and take swings at Orange's mouth.

"Why am I at the wheel if you got all these guys? Couldn't Derringer just get one of you guys to drive?"

"Shit man. That's ol' Fahren's paranoia. He doesn't want any of us at the wheel, cause he thinks we'll try something." Orange explained while defecting Crick's large hands.

"Yeah, like what we going to do in a desert with miles of sand in every direction? He's just never had the pleasure of not worrying about glancing over his shoulder. The guy is always looking for some insurance."

"Since you're a civilian. You got no reason to get tricky out here. Cause we'll wax you the moment you screw up." Scratch cut in.

I looked out the side of my window to see Scratch leaning over to look at me upside down. The guy was perched on the top of the truck cab and scared me half to death. Hell, I forgot he was there. But my view was turned around as Orange elbowed me in the face with his bulky Firebat suit. My nose was tingling as I looked over to see Crick had finally gotten his cigar back.

"My smoke, bitch." He cursed.

"Hell, you left it on the dash." Orange defended.

None of them noticed my face was as red as roaring flame. Of course, they probably didn't care now that I think about it. So I grew a spine and sucked it up. Bout time I got tough out here. The sector I mean. With Zerg and the Toss' and scumbags like Arcturus pretending they run the show, no one's gonna worry about killing little old me. Unless, I gave them a reason. .... That would be pretty hard seeing as how the most lethal weapon I got is a six shot revolver that made even the crappiest semi-auto pistol look like a Yamato Gun. Hm... something to think about at least.

And that's basically what you need when you have a long stretch of road out in front of you. Dumb stuff like that sped stuff forward so I didn't even know when it was night time. The tank suddenly pulled off the road and went down into this valley. We had reached some area of the sand that went up and down like waves on the ocean. I turned the truck to follow as the Goliath took up a position at the road to watch for any would be attackers. Of course, who were we going to find out here anyway? I could see through the rear view mirrors that Fahren's crew was following after us, so I figured we were going to set up a pit stop or something.

When the tank stopped to deploy it's Siege Mode, I figured I'd back the truck right behind it. So if it had to go lobbing Shock Cannon rounds all over the place, we'd be safe. Now, in front of us, Fahren's boys were already setting up a perimeter. Then they had some tents going up. I don't know, it was really fast. Pretty calculated bunch. Crick and Orange had just gone to join them as a question popped into my mind.

"Which tent do I sleep in?"

"You get the truck." Crick told me as they slammed the door upon exiting the vehicle.

Oh... Oh boy. I get the truck. I get the hot sweaty seats we'd been sitting down in for the last billion miles. God damn, I know it was literally a billion. But it felt like it. There was something else I thought of I as opened up my door to call to them.

"Do I get any food on this trip?"

"Maybe." Orange shot back.

"Only if you're really good." Crick added.

"Screw you guys." I muttered.

I wasn't tired right off, and watched them bounce around in the night and set up portable spotlights. Man, a lot could fit in that truck. They worked for a good two hours, and then my vision drifted into my rear view mirror. I saw that Scratch was still on top of the trailer. He was making himself comfortable and using his gun as a pillow. Ouch. That guy must eat nails for breakfast or something. I doubt he'd sleep though. I don't know. Just something about him gave me the impression he was on the clock 24/7. Maybe it's all those stories I hear about Ghosts. Probably why.

One thing I couldn't tell you about that night is when I drifted off to sleep. At least I shut off the truck before stretching myself out on the sweaty seats. And if I knew that would be one of the few in the next few days I would be able to sleep, I would have enjoyed it more. Yes, I would have taken those sweaty seats and acted like they were the softest pillows in the world had I known what was about to happen...

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Sleep Deprivation


	3. Chapter 3: Sleep Deprivation

-Starcraft

--Dead on Delivery

---Chapter 3: Sleep Deprivation

The sun was just making its way over the horizon when I woke up. Everything was pretty blurry, and when I struggled to make out the clock time on the dashboard, I found out why. It was damn near 2:00 in the morning. God, no one wakes up that early for any reason out here. I sat up and looked out the window to see the rest of the camp. Everyone else was still sleeping as far as I could tell. Hell, even the Goliath guys turned in. I couldn't see their walkers anywhere near so they must have parked them. Before I could see much more, I was forced to rub my eyes and wake the rest of my body up. Hell, why was I up in the first place?

The truck shook suddenly, and that pretty much answered my question. It felt like someone just walked into it on accident. Either that or they were testing the shocks. Believe me, I could vouch for them, they worked just well. When I looked through the rearview mirrors, I couldn't see anyone on the drivers side, so I scooted on over to the passenger and looked there. That's when I saw something scoot by the trailer. It appears I wasn't the only one who couldn't get good nights rest. Made my truck cab not seem so bad when I thought about that.

I scooted back on over to the drivers side and was about ready to roll down the window when a low growl emanated from something ugly. I froze up, and slowly looked over my shoulder. And there it was, right in the middle of the camp sniffing the air like it was hunting for a lost bone. A Zergling. The saying went that if Zerglings were in the area, so was your free ticket to hell. Soon there were five of the little bastards, keeping low and tiptoeing around with their scythe-like arms bobbing up and down. They took extra precaution not to bump up against each other and spread out. It wasn't really hard to see any of them, because of their purple carapace coloring.

By now I had gotten the #$% down in my seat, and was only sticking my head up high enough to see through the lowest part of the windshield. It didn't take long before I saw Hydralisks. The snake-like monsters were scooting into the area as the Zerglings spotted for them. They were marking each tent occupied with Terrans they could slaughter and pretty soon they had the whole grounds sniffed out. Well, except my truck. I locked the doors, as stupid as that sounded, and took out my six shot revolver. This was the moment I never expected myself to be at. Shoot them... or shoot myself.

Of course, I had forgotten what a coward I was. Especially when this was my first Zerg encounter.

It only got worse when the ground began to shake a tad. I thought an elephant was coming through, but it was actually a smacked-up Zerg known as a Lurker. These things got in the ground and impaled people at a distance while they were picking their noses. I'd heard from drunken passer-bys these things could tear through tanks, buildings, hell, anything they could reach. They looked like some twisted spider with a brutal Hydralisk-like head. Then there were those claws... When they weren't burrowing, they were tearing things in two. But I had heard they really aren't good at that kind of stuff. It could have fooled me.

I had no idea why they were sneaking around without tearing the whole place down... and why hadn't that god damn siege tank done it's job and blasted these suckers before they got up on us? The mirror had my answer. I could see a hole just below the cannons. It looked like something burrowed into it and went after the driver and gunner. It was just my luck I could see two blood soaked thingamajigs crawl out of the hole and follow after the Hydralisks. Oh shit. Did they do the Goliath guys like that too? I couldn't say I expected these things to act so professionally. I always imagined they'd tear in like someone set them on fire and butcher everyone. That was normal Zerg behavior right?

But now they were just waiting. Why? Holy hell. What the #$% were Zerg doing on Arid Col anyway? No one paid any attention to this planet. Why should they now? In my panic I managed to successfully lean up against the horn and blare it as loud as mechanically possible. It wasn't a long sound, but it was enough to turn the attention of every Zerg in the camp on the truck and I. I cocked the hammer back on the revolver and waited for one of those Zergling things to go leaping in through the window. I'd blow its head off before it could breathe on me...

Of course, the horn also woke up some of Fahren's men. One stumbled out of his tent and looked around. I could hear him utter one of the ugliest cuss words on his mind, before the twisted cry of a whole Zerg army erupted to signal he was a dead man. Now the whole camp was afire with bullets and the Zerg's organic artillery. I could hear ricochet after ricochet bounce off the trailer behind me. Thank god Derringer wasn't joking about how tough that thing was. Somehow, I managed to talk myself into watching the whole bloodbath outside. I don't know. I guess I just didn't want to feel left out.

I saw a Zergling carcass roll across the sand until stopping up against my bumper. A Lurker tore up a whole line of guys with it's row of spines. One Marine threw a grenade and decapitated this one Hydralisk. Hell, I stopped counting bodies after that. So far, no one had bothered to check the truck, but that would only last so long. I knew it. I knew it so badly; I was clutching that revolver like it was my soul trying to escape. Almost fired the damn thing off in nervousness. And just when I had calmed myself down as far as I could for a Zerg attack, someone opened up the passenger side door and caused me to point my weapon while white faced with fear.

"Holy shit man! Put that damn thing down!"

It was Crick. He had some kind of Zerg organ stuck to his left arm, and his gun was still smoking from a recent blast of hot automatic death. Soon after, Orange got in, howling like a wounded animal. Well, mostly cause he **was **wounded. Crick had to shut the door for him since his right arm was pretty messed up. It still didn't keep him from rolling down the window and letting it hang while he shot more flames all over the place.

"You little sons of son of a mother's great-" Orange yelled in a blind rage.

What the #$% was he talking about? I was just staring at him while Crick almost punched me.

"What are you staring at you skinny bastard!? Step on the gas! Get us the hell out of here!"

"What about everyone else?" I stuttered.

"This ain't a fight we can win man! They got burrowed Lurkers out there! You know what the survival rate for engaging burrowed Lurkers are? Zip! Now move!"

Those words got my feet and hands in gear as I started the truck. That was a bad move. Cause it seemed like it turned on some Zerg alarm and before we knew it, they were swamping the truck and jumping in the way to keep us from moving out. But I didn't plan to go forward. I put the truck into reverse and peeled out backwards. That still wasn't very fast, but it was faster than the Zerg response. The window groaned as the Hydralisks were shooting at us with their spine crap. Might as well been green paint, cause it wasn't doing too much at the time. Luckily I had the wheel yanked just right to avoid the Siege Tank parked behind us. I probably even avoided some Lurker attacks.

I spent no time trying to find the road and just took off in any random direction. As long as there weren't any Zerg in my way, that's the direction I went. And these were tenacious bastards too. Just when I thought I could step on the gas, they were all over us. I think I hit a couple with the truck while doing donuts in that little valley. Hell, I was so panicked I probably nailed a couple of Fahren's guys on accident. I just remember going in circles, desperately trying to find a way out. I just... had to get the hell out of there. Away from them. Away from the Zerg. That was probably because I thought I'd never see them in my entire life and here they were, live and in color.

"What are you doin'? Performing for a car commercial? Get us out of this hellhole!" Crick bellowed.

He took hold of my hands and kept them straight so I wouldn't turn the truck anymore. Now we were just mowing down Zergling and Hydralisks and punching a way out of the big melee. Then there was this Defiler... for the love of God, what didn't the Zerg bring out here? I almost lost my lunch as it was currently choking down a Zergling for some reason. Good thing the truck was on the move, or I might have watched the whole cannibalistic frenzy. Or... good thing Crick was still holding my hands down likes a madman.

"I got it! I got it!" I screamed.

Crick was cutting the circulation out of my hands with his death grip, and now I had an opening. The rearview mirrors spoke chaos as bullets and acidic slime weaved it's way all over the place.

"Keep your eyes on the road, punk!" Orange demanded.

What road? We were driving through the desert right now... but who cared? We had Zerg to run from. They'd literally eat us alive if we didn't keep moving. Of course, there was still some Zerglings in the way. I made no attempt to dodge them and just steamrolled them like I had before. There'd be his huge thump, and it felt like the truck hit a ramp or something. Then we'd crash back on the ground and speed up again.

"Come on come on! Move! Move! Get this thing going faster!"

Back to the mirror again. Now they were chasing after us. With feet and undulating bodies pushing them as fast as they could possibly go. I mean... there was no way this bulky truck was going to out run Zerglings and Hydralisks smacked up on alien adrenaline sacs... I mean... there was no way...

"I'll hit the brakes! Make them go headfirst into the trailer!" I thought aloud.

"You stop this thing and we'll feed ya to the Zerg!"

When I went back to look and see how much closer they had gotten... They were gone. I looked over to the passenger side mirror and didn't see them on that side either. Where the hell had they gone? Who knows and I really didn't want to find out. I kept driving, I had the truck up to 110 or something. We were really flying. Just as fast as that truck could go. So fast we ramped a couple dunes and didn't even realize it until the large rolling sand hill was behind us. So fast that it was in the afternoon when we finally slowed to a stop.

We were speeding by this oasis when Crick and Orange began to yell out to me.

"Stop the truck! Stop the truck!"

"We're safe man! Come on! Slow down! Slow the hell down!"

I was still frantic from seeing the Zerg first hand and didn't even think about what it would be like when I slammed the breaks. When I did, I almost threw myself and the two guys next to me into the windshield. But I quickly eased up and made a slow and steady stop. Right on up the oasis with the funky hook shaped trees. Silence. Now, picture this. We're sitting there in a hot truck after surviving a Zerg attack and right in front of us is a large pool of crystal clear water. It looks pretty cool too.

"Well..." I began.

"Figures. Somehow the Zerg would show up." Crick groaned. "Did you see the color of their carapace? Purple."

"Why does that matter?" I asked.

"What? You been living under a rock? Those purple Zerg belong to the Queen of Blades' personal brood. Those things are not to be messed with. They took on the UED, Terran Dominion, and the Protoss at one time and put them all in a world of hurt. Probably the most intelligent, cutthroat, diabolical Brood ever."

We are so screwed. There wasn't a single person in the sector that hadn't heard about the Queen of Blades. She was some... Terran Zerg hybrid with a bad attitude and tons of Zerg to run errands for her. As of right then, it seemed like she was queen of the universe the way no one could touch her.

"Come on man, help me fix up my arm." Orange sighed.

We all got out of the truck and headed for the small pool of water. I remember, there was this sound like the wind came through... only with no wind. I looked around confused, until I spotted Scratch on top of the truck.

"Whoa, Scratch. You're alive too?" I exclaimed.

He shrugged. Knowing him, he probably wanted to say "Thanks for the obvious".

"Pretty close." He mumbled while getting down from the top of the trailer.

Hey...

"Come on down Scratch. Sit down. We gotta figure out what the hell we're gonna do now that we're flying solo and the Zerg are after us."

Crick said that with such ease you'd think it was a joke or something come to think about it, it was pretty funny in the end. Heh heh heh... That's funny. Yeah. It's real funny. Heh heh heh. Why ain't you laughing? It's funny... I stood up and threw my hands out, about ready to have a nervous breakdown.

"For the love of God! What the hell are you sayin' man? Are saying they're after us? But why the hell would anyone come to this planet after ignoring it for so long and-"

It was about the middle of my rant when I picked up on what I was saying. Crick, Orange, and Scratch figured it out too, and soon enough we were all looking at that goddamned truck. Soon enough we were all standing in a nice little line, Crick and Orange to my right, and Scratch to my left. Such a pitiful little thing with a trailer and covered with dust and blood. There was even a Zergling leg hanging from the bumper. You'd hardly expect it would be something an alien race would be after. Hell, looks like something you'd take to the scrap yard to get twenty credits for.

"Hey guys. Did we actually check to see what was inside the truck?" I asked.

"We never had a reason man." Orange muttered.

"Look don't even think about it. We're being paid to drive the thing, not crack it open." Crick warned. "Let's get some more sleep. I didn't sleep a wink back at camp and now it looks like we'll need it more than ever."

"Hey. You're just gonna drop this thing? The Zerg man... the freakin' Zerg of Zerg just tried to burn us back there and you don't even want to find out why?" I continued to push.

"Yeah, so life sucks. But the less we know, the better."

"Ever hear of that sayin' 'knowledge is power'?"

"Ok wheelman." Crick was now in my face. "Who's got the bigger gun?"

Son of a bitch... With that, Crick shot me a satisfied smile and a nod like "yeah, that's what I thought" and turned toward the oasis. Looking at Scratch and Orange, I could already tell they were taking his side. Come on! This is like... one of those season finales on Universe Network and you gotta wait a whole friggin' year to find out what the hell happened... I want to know now. I want to know what the Zerg are going to cut my head off about. It sure ain't about fuel or resources. The Zerg own over half the sector, and owned it like they lived there all their lives. They got no problem when it comes to making ends meet. It's us and the Protoss that are the ones in real trouble.

"Aw come on..."

We said nothing more and waited for night to fall. All of us were looking towards sleep since we were woken up so early at Fahren's camp. Even though Crick and Company were in no hurry to inspect the truck, they knew it was bad news and decided to sleep around the small pool of water instead of inside the cab. Even though I more or less joined them. I didn't sleep. I wanted to, but I couldn't. It was just the fact that we didn't have a clue why the Zerg were after us. We could have found out, but didn't. So halfway through the night after they had gone to sleep, I slowly stood up and moved toward the back of the trailer.

Now it was time to find out why the Zerg found Arid Sol so appealing all the sudden. Cause if Derringer had stuffed some PSI Emitter in this thing for some reason... I was going to wring his neck... then shoot him... then feed him to the Zerg... then shoot him again.

Damn, even when the truck was stopped and turned off, it's creaking gear shafts and drive chain made a whole hell of a lot of noise. So, you can imagine with that ruckus and the three guys still sleeping, I felt pretty safe when I slowly tiptoed to the back of the truck where this huge nozzle was. You know, one of those things you hook up to hoses and cables to drain the tanker. Cept' all I was going to do was release a little of it out onto the desert sands. I was going to find out... then there was a click sound. A weapon had been readied to fire.

"Keep it up, I dare ya."

I looked up to see nothing, and when I turned around I was surprised to still see nothing... until Scratch turned off his cloaking device. Man, although he was pointing a semi-automatic pistol at me, it was still cool to see a Ghost appear after just being invisible. It's like... the wind came by and painted them in or something. Then there was that whoosh sound...

"Scratch? I thought you were asleep..."

"What did Crick say?"

"He-"

"Exactly."

"Aren't you-"

"No."

I could barely get a word out before he cut me off. But somehow, I just knew he could quote me word for word before I even said it. Talking proved to just dig myself deeper. I'd try to say more, and he'd just shake his head then drive his gun closer to my face. I'm pretty sure he would shoot if he had too. Scratch has probably killed so many important Terrans that killing me would be like swatting a fly from the air. You couldn't see his face but it's not like you had to. You felt him whether you wanted to or not.

"You going to shoot?"

"Step away from the nozzle." He ordered. "Orange is recovering. We still need a driver so Crick and I can keep our eyes peeled."

What a lame reason...

"Hey. Do you want to live or not?"

"Fine. I won't touch it." I told him.

I stepped away. But when I stopped, the sound made by my feet going through the sand didn't. It was all around us. Sounded like someone was pacing around us. Then I saw Scratch gulp and knew something was very wrong. You know something is very wrong when a Ghost gets nervous. The truth was, someone **was **walking around us. They were invisible somehow... Other Ghosts maybe?

"Hey Scratch. How many other Ghost agents were there with Fahren?" I whispered

"It ain't Ghosts." He muttered back. "Dark Templar."

Oh shit. We just couldn't get a break out here...

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Shadow Play


	4. Chapter 4: Shadow Play

-Starcraft

--Dead on Delivery

---Chapter 4: Shadow Play

I didn't know much about Dark Templar. Only that they're Protoss, and apparently they make grown men cower in fear. Now I could see why. They were fuggin' invisible like a Ghost. No doubt they had some colorful way to kill things. Whether it be tearing apart your mind or slicing you in two with those light swords Zealots are sporting all the time. Cept' let me reiterate. You can't see them! Okay... that was mostly for myself. This is probably old news for some of the more active pirates and commanders out there. Cause apparently Scratch knew about them.

He was still pointing his gun at me, no doubt trying to figure out how to move and not get killed. Then there was the little question on why they were out here... stalking around us of all Terrans... Unless this truck was packing something so sensitive we couldn't even imagine... I mean, Zerg are easy to explain. They rampage around the galaxy consuming everything they want to. The Protoss are a little bit more difficult to explain, because the only time they get involved with us is when we involve ourselves with them. They don't go out of their way to go headfirst into a Terran world unless something really pisses them off.

And now we're back to Scratch and I, standing still, just listening to them all walk around us and trudge through the sand... The sand... It struck me like a light bulb turning on, and I glanced downward at the shifting sands around us. You could see it; you could see the footsteps they took. The footsteps didn't stay around long due to the wind, but they were there. No telling if Scratch picked up on my wandering eyes, but from my position with my back to the rear of the trailer, I could count three of them.

"All right Raleigh. Move away from the truck and toward the oasis." Scratch said after a time.

He was resuming our conversation we were having before we picked up on the Dark Templar.

"Okay okay..." I faked in the worst acting voice ever.

What could I say? I was scared out of my wits. But before I could even turn to move toward the oasis, Scratch made this fast move to kick sand into the air. The wind caused the sand to make a rough outline out of one Dark Templar. Then he began to discharge his pistol to cause the shields of the other two to light up. I swear... he must have emptied the clip. Not that you could kill Protoss with a measly pistol... but he managed to mark them for a short time. There were actually five of those things running around out here.

"Come on Raleigh!" Scratch yelled while running back to the oasis to pick up his Canister rifle.

I was shaking like a leaf as I ran to the small pool of water to wake up Orange and Crick. Of course, the gunshots from earlier did the job. I was just a waste of breath.

"Hey... were those gunshots?" Crick asked lazily.

"Dark Templar! Or so Scratch says!" I reported to them.

That got them awake real fast.

"What the #$% are you talking about?" Orange bellowed.

I couldn't really say anymore. I had to start the truck and began to head toward the cab. Or at least that's what I wanted to do. But Scratch had cloaked, and was now firing canister round after canister round everywhere in hopes he could blast his invisible attackers. And when I say everywhere, I meant everywhere. I swear one shot almost blew my head off... From what I could tell, he wasn't having any luck. There was no sudden burst of shield from one of the Dark Templar as he shot at them; he was just... shooting into nowhere now.

It got worse as Crick and Orange joined the chaos and added their own personal touches to the experience. I covered my ears as Crick fired off his deafening Gauss Rifle and peppered the air with lead. Then I had to duck and cover as Orange activated his twin flamethrowers. He nearly cooked my ass well done!

"Hey! What the hells are you tryin' to do?"

"Sorry man." He shouted, and continued to spray the area with flames.

It didn't take too long before they realized the Dark Templar were nowhere near there attacking range.

"Come on! Come on! Let's get the hell out of here!" I shouted.

"Start the truck Raleigh. We'll keep watch!" Crick ordered.

I could hear Orange spray more flames over the place as he desperately tried to mark their invisible attackers. They were crazy. We should have put our hands up and froze like it was a blizzard out there. No way we were going to survive this crap. Heh, I could just picture the Dark Templar standing over by the oasis and watching these three Terrans fire off their weapons like they were in a hot zone. Probably even add commentary if they had a sense of humor!

At any rate, I made it to the truck and got in as fast as I could. It wasn't fast enough as someone grabbed the back of my coat and yanked back with inhuman strength. I ate some sand as I tumbled out and landed face first. Man. that sand was salty... I looked up to see no one in the immediate area... Oh my God... I had a feeling my head was about to jump right off its shoulders when a shot rang out and slammed into some target right in front of me. The shields of a Dark Templar lit up and caused it to turn toward a more pressing target. Scratch, who was still firing off his Canister Rifle like a mad man. I thought Ghosts were supposed to be stealthy? Not trigger-happy!

Before I could get up, someone picked me up, and I could see Crick's white boot moving frantically across the sand. He pretty much threw me into the truck and ran around to the passenger side. Orange got in, and through the rear view mirror I could see Scratch scramble up the side of the trailer to get on top. I didn't have to have anyone tell me it was time to burn out... again. And run like a chicken with its head cut off. Man, we were going to be so lost... But really, that was the least of my worries at the time. I was still frantic from my close encounter with an invisible Toss'.

"What the hell are the Protoss doin' here?"

"You think they want to talk?" I said with a nervous laugh.

"That ain't funny punk." Orange yelled.

The truck let out a roar, as if the engine was angry it had to be abused once again. I put the foot to the pedal and the pedal to the floor to make this thing move like it never moved before. I saw sparks and whooshes of some sword as the Dark Templar cut away at the truck as it rolled past. God, I hope they didn't damage any critical systems... That'd be just our luck. Get so deep into the desert and then run out of gas or get a flat or some cliche automotive difficulty. The Dark Templar were probably running after us... or just watching us get away. Hell, who knew? We needed a Science Vessel. Those things could pick up what was on your breath from the dinner you had yesterday.

I had to turn on the lights as we were speeding through almost perfect darkness. The stars seemed to laugh and point and not even move, as if we were just spinning our wheels in the endless sands of this goddamn desert. First Zerg, then Toss', now this desert. Why me? Why us? Why this stupid truck?

"Can we look at the truck's contents now?" I whined.

"We need a place to hide out first." Crick told me. "Cause we're being chased by Toss' and Zerg."

"Really? Wow. Thanks for that."

"Shut up, boy."

Crick even managed to put on that accent most Confederate Marines used to throw around. Hell, some probably even do now.

"Scratch here. I spot a large mountain to the left. Looks like there's lights. Might be someone we can get help from."

We all looked to our left to see a mountain sticking out of nowhere. Of course, it was dark, so we probably had left the sand behind awhile ago, and reached some new rocky area. My suspicions were confirmed as I turned toward the mountain and began to feel the truck roll through rocks and uneven ground. Probably even squashed some alien cactus while we were at it. This truck wasn't much for maneuverability and conventional size to fit in those hard-to-reach places. No, it was designed to carry an ass load of crap and take none of it while in transport.

It wasn't long until we were in the foothill of this mountain. We hit some incline, and the road had become significantly smoother. Almost as if some team had hammered out some pathway through the field of rocks we just plowed through. Then we saw signs. I could tell we were all simply riveted to find some sign of Terran life so far out in the middle of nowhere, while off the road and being chased by two different alien species.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Bring the truck to a crawl... Just a tad." Orange ordered.

Now the truck was inching along into this cramped base of some sort. There were pipes above us going from one side of this enclosed mountain area to the next. From what the light shown, there was a huge facility built into the side of the mountain. Scratch had to lend the flashlight on his canister rifle to illuminate a marking on the first story of the mountain structure.

"Well, I'll be damned. The Kel-Morian Combine. Always nice to see them around."

Yeah, I could make it out too. Some weird "K" placed over an even stranger "M". People knew that whenever you saw their mark, they were ripping the planet's resources from the inside out. A mining guild they called it. But "Resource Whores" was an even better title I thought. They'd do anything to cash in. And it was said they were pretty tight with the Confederation, which meant they could get away with anything. But now... after the Arcturus capped the Confederacy and the Zerg tore out their hearts. They're a lot less spunky. Still just as dangerous, but not as daring.

This must be one of their more recently abandoned projects. Why would I suspect that? Well, for one, there was no one around. Usually, the Kel-Morian guys liked to deploy their oh-so-famous Goliaths. But there wasn't even an SCV around here. No, this place was dead as a doornail. Probably as dry as a water bottle left out in the desert we just came from. The only thing you could get here now was fumes from depleted Vespine Geysers.

"This is great." Crick decided. "Quick, Raleigh, move in there. Come on man, go go."

He was pointing toward a gaping cave mouth. You could drive a truck through it... Okay, so that's just what I did. The mine was dark, so there was still use for the truck's headlights. Scratch had to lay down on his stomach because the clearance was so low. But once we were inside, he could sit up again and look behind us as we went into the cave. There were heavy pipes running along the ceiling with deactivated lights. Probably to vent anything from excessive Vespine fumes to toilet waste. The Combine were known to dig in deep when it meant riches and wealth.

Pretty soon we got to this huge turntable station that housed a gallery of Spider Trains. Now, don't let your imagination run off with you. Spider Trains didn't look like actual spiders. They still used a rail system dictated by highly energized beams that ran all over mine tunnels like this one. Why they were called Spider Trains, was because it could move vertically, and stick to ceilings and pretty much cling to any surface so long as you had rails running along it. It was ideal technology when the caves got all twisted and unfriendly for tanks and other things that didn't take kindly to sudden drops and shafts that went straight up. Cargo inside was either strapped down, or newer models had some sort of anti-gravity system so it felt like you were still on solid ground.

Crick seemed to be interested in something else as he told me stop the truck and got out. Soon we were all following him over to this maintenance shed were this large plaque held a map of the mine.

"Alright. This is what I'm talking about. We need to go here."

He was pointed to the control room of the mine. Here he said we'd find a good map of the entire area round the mountain. This would help, since I had never gone much more than a mile away from Dry Drop and didn't know a thing about this planet or it's only desert. And this got me thinking while we headed toward a nearby mine elevator and headed upwards.

"Can you believe it guys?" I was laughing at the time. "Arid Col's only desert, and we're stuck in the middle of it. Did you know the rest of the planet is covered in rainforests?"

"Jungle crap huh? Shit. I hate jungles." Orange muttered. "At least in a desert there's nothing your enemy can hide behind."

"Like in Aiur? Goddamn, I hated that operation." Crick began.

Next thing I knew they were talking about their first encounter with Dark Templar. Apparently the UED was after Arcturus. Oh man, I wish I could have watched that scene. And they went to Aiur cause for some reason Raynor and some Protoss kidnapped him or saved him or something. They didn't seem too clear on that issue. But as they continued talking, even Scratch felt inclined to say something.

"You'd be on a smoke break. Or taking a piss. And you'd just hear some guy get slashed in two somewhere out beyond the perimeter. No one would see it coming."

"Pretty ruthless." I commented.

"No, not really. Dark Templar worship their homeland, and we crossed the line. Simple as that. Had those Templar back at the Oasis really been sent to kill us, we wouldn't be here. They don't play with their enemies."

"How do you know?"

I felt Crick slap me in the back of the head.

"He's a Ghost. The better question was what _doesn't _he know about the Toss'. Yeah, most Ghost guys would get real weird around Protoss guys."

Okay... now our conversation just ran into the "weird zone". They said some more stuff about some people I didn't recognize by name. Like some dude named Duran and another guy named Stukov. And on and on. Seems like the conversation was coming to an end when the elevator came to a stop at the top floor. We stepped off and headed through a door to this huge rotunda place that was set up like a Command Center's main tower. The elevator was in the middle, so you had to walk around to see the whole room. We were near the top of the mountain and could see in every direction through the windows. Too bad it was so dark, and we couldn't really see anything. We would have to wait for sunrise.

While I as looking out into the darkness, Crick and Scratch had moved to start pressing buttons on control panels. The Combine guys must have been in some hurry to leave this operation, cause there was still a sizable generator hooked up to the installation. Lights turned on everywhere and the computer systems turned on like they were just installed.

"Okay..." Orange sang as we moved behind Crick. "Let's find out where the hell we are."

A section of the window became covered as a computer screen slid down and displayed a map of the mountain and the mine shafts that ran all over the underground like roots of a tree. I was right about everything being gone. No minerals, weak Vespine signatures. The Combine got their moneys worth of this operation. Crick began to pound a button to zoom out. The mountain got smaller, the mineshafts disappeared and a wire frame topographical map showed up. He kept hitting the button until both Dry Drop and Anchor Rock were in the picture. And that's when we got the bad news.

"Oh no. We actually lost ground. We're closer to Dry Drop than our stupid destination. Goddamn!"

"The Zerg got us turned around... and the Toss' just pushed us further." I realized.

"Well #$%!" Orange cut in. "Let's just head back to Dry Drop and get the hell off this rock."

"We'd never make it." Scratch explained. "The Zerg already got us marked. They know we're here. Going back would just speed their hunt up."

"No way. See this flat here? We can take a big loop back, stretch it out. Sneak around their forces. Easy." Orange protested.

"Do we even know how many Zerg they got on this world?"

There was a long pause as Orange collapsed into a seat and cursed some more. Scratch was right. We didn't know how many guys they had after us. It could be the entire Brood for all we knew. And when I saw Brood, I'm talking about millions of Zerg. A planet killing size.

"Okay, okay. We'll just leave the truck here. And run for it." I thought aloud.

"Great idea dumb ass. So when the truck is taken away, we'll just wander through the desert and hope someone will pick us up? No, we'll never make it that way either." Crick snapped. "No. We need a foolproof plan..."

"We deliver it." Scratch said suddenly.

"What?" I stuttered.

"No no. He's right." Orange agreed. "It's perfect."

"What did you guys say? We want to willingly run around with... whatever that thing is? I don't think I want money that badly."

"It ain't about the money anymore Raleigh." Crick said while standing up. "We deliver this truck. We hand it off to Derringer's business partners. Now they got it. The Zerg and Toss will pick up right quick when it starts to move off the planet. We're in the clear."

"How do we know Derringer wants it off the planet?"

"If they stay, even better. We get lost. Stay low. When the Zerg or Toss raid the city and find the truck. They'll take off."

"We don't even know what's in the truck!"

There was a long silence as we all exchanged a glance. I knew what was coming next.

"He's right guys." Crick admitted with a cocky smile. "Come on. Let's find out."

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Do Not Open


	5. Chapter 5: Do Not Open

-Starcraft

--Dead on Delivery

---Chapter 5: Do Not Open

"What now?"

"I don't know... hit it harder."

"I hit it as hard as I could. Nothing is comin' out."

Yeah... this sounds like two idiots who are about to blow themselves up. Crick and Orange to be more specific. They were pounding on the nozzle in the back frantically, trying to get it to release some of its contents. After thinking about it more, I had begun to regret suggesting the idea. After all, what if there's some new neurotoxin inside? Or some nuclear weapon that is designed to blow up and take half a planet with it? I tried to think of things Zerg and Protoss would want, but I kept coming up with was Terran weapons designed to blow when someone screwed with the trailer.

"Okay, one last time."

There was a ringing metallic clank as Crick took another swing at the nozzle with a sledgehammer we found in a nearby maintenance shed. I could see the sweat on his face, and the exhaustion. Safe to say, we had been working on it for awhile. Orange had the same perspiration, except his was nervous sweat. The kind associated with people trying to disarm a bomb.

"Let's turn the nozzle back and forth again." Orange suggested. "Just... don't hit it."

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. We had flipped the nozzle open like I planned to do back at the oasis. But nothing came out. Our next thought was that it was stuck or something.... whatever was inside. That's what brought us to Crick hitting the thing with a sledge.

"What you worried about? This thing can withstand a Scourge attack!"

"That's what Derringer said. But he's the same guy who said this escort mission would be no problem."

That brought up a good point, and Crick suddenly stepped away and looked up and down the trailer nervously. Scratch was sitting on a boulder watching the two work. He must have been thinking, because his Marine and Firebat partner didn't seem to care that he wasn't doing anything.

"This is god damn ridiculous." I muttered.

"Shut up Raleigh. You don't have any better ideas. I know it."

We'll see about that. I headed toward the cab where all the diagnostic systems were set up. Maybe there was some switch to give me a readout of the inside. If these systems were as sophisticated as Derringer said it was. I don't think it'd be too hard to figure out what we were hauling. Crick and Orange took a breather while I began to mess with the little handheld monitors near the ceiling. It was reading green... I think. It had read green this entire trip actually. Even when the Zerg were taking potshots at it. Maybe it was busted?

"What the hell you doin' Raleigh?" Crick yelled from the back of the trailer.

I was smacking one of the monitors. Trying to get it to change colors or react or something. Then I hit it so hard it popped right out of the place it had been lodged in. It looked like the whole top part of the truck cab came down. Soon I saw why. It was fake. The whole set up was fake. I looked over it slowly. The monitors had two modes. On or off. It did nothing else, and the wires didn't lead anywhere like I thought they did. I threw the piece of junk out of the cab to the floor of the cave and looked toward the dashboard where there were two more of those monitors.

At that time, Scratch had opened up the passenger door to look in and called over the other two. They examined the part I had torn out, and then turned to watch me tear out the last part of this bogus set up. We could see it then. A switch on the dashboard. It had two buttons. One button read "Open", and the other button read "Close".

"Well, well, well. Lookie here. Derringer is turning into a bigger asshole every second. Press the 'Open' button Raleigh."

"Are you insane? What if it's some bomb?"

"Hey, you wanted to find out what it was. Now press it."

I looked to receive similar glares from Scratch and Orange. My breathing stopped. These guys were suicidal... But I pressed the round yellow button anyway. A whole hell of a lot of noise began to emanate from the trailer behind us. I got out and joined them as they watched parts of the trailer slide away, like weird garage doors. Now there was nothing hiding the insides of this thing. We could see it, we could see what the Zerg and Protoss were after. And damn, it was bright.

It reminded me of sardines. Only instead of some Earth fish, there were these strange blue and red crystals packed wall to wall. You could see some lighting or sparks or whatever go from point to point. In fact, it almost looked like a liquid with crystal chunks inside. Anyway, we knew why the nozzle wasn't letting anything out. It wasn't designed to be let out that way. We moved around to the back, and saw that the nozzle was just as fake as the monitors in the truck cab. On the very back, the ladder was designed to fall away if someone had a power drill, and there was a large door that reminded me a sewer hatch. It looked like... if someone were to give it a couple good turns. That crystal stuff would be everywhere.

"Looks like minerals."

"Yeah, charged with some strange energy."

"It's Khaydarin Crystals. Not minerals." Scratch corrected.

"Look, whatever it is, it looks unstable." I pointed out.

"Now... I bet the Toss' would want this back. It is their crap after all. But why the Zerg?" Crick asked.

We all stared at it a bit longer. Khaydarin Crystals? It had something to do with the Toss'... But still, what the hell makes these things different from mineral formations? As far as I could gather, Protoss were real sensitive about stuff that belonged to them. But like Crick said, why the Zerg? I said before, they got no problem with funding their massive swarm serving the Queen of Bitches... I mean Blades. Seems like a whole lot of trouble just for some crystals...

"Look, whatever man. Let's just deliver this sh-"

Orange got halfway through his sentence before a hideous scream cut him off. A Zerg scream. God knows what from. But whatever it was, it wasn't going to shake our hand and give us presents.

"Holy shit. That came from the entrance. How the hell did they..."

"Don't ask questions Orange, we suck at answering them anyway! We need to find out where these tunnels go. There's got to be another way to the surface." Crick yelled.

We all split up to check walls and random monitors all over the place to find some schematics of the cave. I knew they had some on hand judging from the readout we saw in the control room. It was now just a matter of accessing it from down here. I should have figured Scratch would beat us all to it and tell us to get in the truck.

"Yo Scratch! You ride shotgun! Make sure Raleigh knows where he's going!"

Crick and Scratch had now switched places. Now the Ghost was in the passenger seat while the Marine rode on top of the trailer. Oh man, I hope he knew what he was doing... I wasn't going to say it, but I thought it was a bad idea.

"Let's go punk! Punch it!" Orange shouted as the screams got louder.

We were really moving as I turned off into a gaping tunnel and pounded the pedal with my foot. Even with headlights, the cave was like an abyss and swallowed it up. We could maybe see a meter in front of us before never ending blackness resumed. Oh yeah, then there was the trailer we had opened. Those crystal things made a blue aura surround the truck and pretty much lit up the immediate area around us. We stuck out like a sore thumb in that dark tunnel. I think I saw some stalactites and I just hoped Crick was on his stomach or something.

"Turn right here." Scratch commanded.

Man, with that creepy Ghost voice, it wouldn't matter if I knew a better way. I would just follow his instructions so he wouldn't hurt me. Scratch could probably whip out a knife and slit my throat before I could scream. Anyway... the direction he had pointed out was a rough one as the truck began to shake like an earthquake was going on. Turns out we were plowing through rows of stalagmites. I seriously prayed some horribly memorized hymn that we wouldn't bust the truck up this way. We had to keep moving, or we'd be Zerg food. And those twisted screams were constant reminders. Those bastards almost sounded giddy that they had found us.

"Yo Crick you see them?" Orange asked via the com set in his helmet.

"Hell! I can't see my gun up here! Someone find a smoother road! Before I throw up!"

With the crackly radio sound and everything, Crick's demand came off more humorous than serious. I almost laughed, if it weren't for Scratch next to me. It would be a nervous, unstable laugh, and then I'd just look crazy. Even though we had been on this trip from hell for awhile, I still felt they would kill me if they thought they had to. Best for me if I didn't give them a reason. Not even the slightest consideration. I had to act like a tough Marine guy or the next Ghost guy down the road... even though I was furthest from anything on a Terran military force.

"Hard left Raleigh! Hard left!"

This is where I messed up. I couldn't see where Scratch wanted me to turn, so I began to turn casually. Then I saw it, and really turned the wheel to compensate for overshooting. This just jackknifed the sucker, and we got really screwed. The whole thing decided to slide right into the cave wall and we could all hear was the breaking of rock and the groan of twisting metal. Hell, we even heard Crick scream as he was thrown to the ground and off the trailer. The passenger side of the cab was now pressed up against the cave wall, so the only way we could have gotten out to check on Crick was through my side.

Yeah, Scratch and Orange shoved me out as soon as they could manage and jumped out to check on their Marine buddy. I pushed myself up off the ground and heard the scream of a million pissed off Zerg... closer than ever before.

"Oh shit! They're gonna catch up with us!" Orange yelled.

I saw Crick stumble out from behind the trailer where he was tossed. His white suit looked black now and he was heading toward me with his fist cocked.

"Oh come on! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I pleaded.

He didn't hit me like I expected, he just grabbed me by the collar and nearly lifted me off the ground.

"Get this thing running again, or I'm gonna make Orange cook you alive!"

I almost fell on my ass as he pushed me away. I could see now, that Crick, Orange and Scratch were gonna hold off the Zerg as long as they had to. This was a stupid move in my opinion. Three guys never got anywhere when the Zerg numbered in the billion. But who cares, I had to get the truck unhinged from the wall. No doubt there were plenty of crevices for complicated mechanical parts to get jammed in. At least the engine was still running. But I couldn't even get my feet on the pedal when a large crack spilt the air.

Scratch had made a Zergling a head shorter. Soon Crick and Orange were into the whole thing as the fired down the way we had just came. The most prominent thing was Orange's flames. Almost blinded me since the cave was so dark. Still, the sudden burst of light also caught some Zerg off guard and Crick wasted no time filling them with holes. But all this success was temporary, I knew. Eventually the really ugly guns of the Zerg force would make their way down here. Like the Hydralisks... And that Defiler I saw. Holy hell... I hope that thing wasn't among the pile of carcasses Crick, Orange, and Scratch were making.

Man, I had to stay focused with getting this thing off the side of the wall. I accelerated only to go nowhere, and instead cause a hideous grinding noise to echo throughout the cave. My next plan was reverse and this was a bit more successful. Slowly the truck began to push the trailer out into the main path. When I had freed the whole thing and lined it up with the turn Scratch was talking about. I had a big grin. Then a headless Zergling rolled across the hood and scared me half to death. I looked to see those bastards were trying to jump over Orange's flames, and Scratch was picking them off mid-air.

But there was too many. One landed right on Crick and brought it's scythe arms back to take his arms off. Crick shot his rifle up and caught the two scythes just in time. But I don't know if you're well associated with Zerglings, they have two pairs of arms. The other set was freed up and began to claw away at Crick's suit. Scratch was too busy treating the other Zerglings like clay pigeons to notice. Orange couldn't help without cooking both Crick and the Zergling. So without thinking, I jumped out and got my revolver ready...

"Crick! Don't move! I shouted."

"#$% you Raleigh!" He yelled back in a panic.

Still, with him squirming and all, I aimed my revolver with both hands at the Zergling's head. My eyes were squinted, I remember, and the sweat was rolling down and stinging like crazy. Somehow I pulled the trigger anyway and got a good shot to drill right between the Zerglings eyes. It paused, jerked around like someone had shocked it and fell dead to the floor. Crick leapt up, picked his rifle off the ground, reloaded, and proceeded to blast that sucker into ten different pieces.

"What was that? Some kind of crack shot?" He was angry, and surprised at the same time.

"Hey, I never said I was a bad shot with my revolver. I just said it was old!"

And that was the truth. You can imagine, that in my free time I set up rocks and other stupid targets to blast with my stupid gun. It was easy to hit what you were aiming at. It's just most of the time, targets in this sector are armored with some tough crap, so aiming doesn't do you much good. We got lucky today.

"Just... get back in the truck!"

Crick pulled a grenade and threw it so it would ricochet off the cave ceiling. Scratch and Orange had retreated to the truck, having found too many targets to take out at once. When that bomb went off, we watched as the whole area came down around us. I barely got the truck out before the whole thing collapsed. Even as we kept moving down the tunnel, we could hear rocks and other collapsing crap behind us.

"That was nice. We should throw grenades more often."

"Hope you enjoyed it. Cause that was my only one."

Oh man...

"God damn... I don't think I can take much more of this. It only takes one of them things to do you in..." Orange stuttered in a nervous fit. "Never signed up to be hunted like a god damn fox."

"Here, have a smoke. Calm down."

Crick handed Orange a cigar and lit it up. Humph. If the reason why Crick only had one grenade was because he had smokes in the other pouches. I was going to kill someone... We quieted down after our encounter with the Zerg back there. If we were lucky, that cave in would force them to burrow for a couple hours. I hoped days. But it usually doesn't take Zerg long to dig anywhere. Then we saw the most beautiful thing in the world. Light at the end of the tunnel. Symbolically or literally. Take your pick. We didn't care.

But shit man. That sun was bright. It must at least been a minute before I could make anything out. We were on the other side of the mountain heading in the direction of Anchor Rock. According to that map up in the control room... We had a long drive across more desert and finally a snaking canyon even deeper than the one where we met Fahren... that reminds me. Fahren. Man, he wasn't around for long. I saw the guy... once? I think? And some Zerg does him in. What a life.

I was about to say something to Crick when a deafening explosion went off somewhere ahead of us. Dust was everywhere and before any of us knew that the hell was going on. We had driven headlong into a smoking crater. The only thing that could do that much damage right off the top of my head was a Shock Cannon round... Holy shit. A Shock Cannon! Some crazy bastard was shooting at us. Out here! After just escaping the Zerg. What the hell was this? Perpetual close encounters with death?

Through the dust and the smoke left over from the blast I could see guys with guns surrounding us. And then after holding my hand above my eyes to shield some light. I could make out Fahren. He was alive! But unfortunately... very pissed for some reason...

"All right you backstabbing sons of bitches! Git out of that truck! Before we turn you all into cannon fodder!"

What the #$% was going on...

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Now from All Sides...


	6. Chapter 6: Now from All Sides

-Starcraft

--Dead on Delivery

---Chapter 6: Now from All Sides...

Before I knew it, Fahren's guys had ripped us out of the truck, and forced us to get on our knees with hands behind our heads. It was perfectly clear that if we tried something, full automatic retaliation was not out of the question. The only thing I could look at a time like that, was the truck. It looked bad. Headfirst in a crater. But the trailer was still on even ground. It's just the truck cab that was almost underground. They had gotten another tank to swing around, and began to pull the thing out. But we hadn't forgotten. There was still a Siege Tank in Siege Mode not to far away... This must have been all new stuff. I mean... most of Fahren's crap was destroyed by Zerg right? Of course... now that I think about it. We hadn't stuck around to see how that fight worked out.

There wasn't much we could do anyway. They had taken all our weapons and Orange's tanks so he couldn't light a candle. Well, actually, let me rephrase that. They pulled my revolver out of my jacket and simply laughed at it. They tossed it some ways away without so much as another thought. When they did that... I felt... so... naked.

"Boss!" Crick cried. "What's going on? We thought you were dead!"

"We thought we were goners with all those Zerg running around." Orange continued.

"Shut up! You infested bastards!"

Infested? What?

"Soon as you took off, so did the Zerg! They were just covering your escape!"

"What!?" I nearly yelled.

I could feel someone's heavy rifle stock hit me in the back of the head.

"God damn boss. They're after the truck. They're after something Derringer didn't want us to know about." Crick tried to reason.

"And you f#$ing morons opened it up did you? You little bastards..."

"Wait! You knew?"

"Of course I knew! You don't think I'm stupid enough to take a job without inspecting the cargo!"

"You are way too paranoid! We were running for our lives! The Zerg are still after us! They almost killed us!" I screamed.

Ouch, the next blow was with some force behind it. I went face first into the sand, with the world spinning around me. I could still hear them talk.

"Lay off the civilian boss!"

"Oh yes. About your civilian friend..."

Farhen marched right up and picked me up off the ground by my hair. I took hurried breaths, it was excruciating. But Fahren wanted it to be like that.

"Your friend is one of them! One of the Zerg! That's how they found us!"

Crick, Orange, and even Scratch turned to look at me. No way they were buying this shit. I'd think I would know if a Queen flew to Arid Col and shoved a parasite down my throat while I was sleeping. They didn't say anything. Just lookin' at me funny like they believed Fahren... Wait... they wouldn't actually believe Fahren? Would they?

"Infested?" Orange repeated.

"Damn right! You sorry piss ant! I'm gonna burn his sorry ass so the Zerg parasite goes with him."

He threw me face first to the ground and caused my nose to sting even more than before. The warm icky sensation of blood flowing soon found it's way there, and now I had a bloody nose thanks to that paranoid weirdo! Somehow, I managed to push myself up off the ground and began to cough.

"What about the Protoss? How'd they find out?" I choked out.

"What Toss'? There aren't any Protoss on this world! And even if there were, don't think I'd believe an infested #$% up like yourself!"

"Protoss are here." Scratch reported slowly.

It figures Fahren would pay attention to a Ghost instead of me. But that got across the message. He didn't seem to worried when Orange coughed up the moment about the Dark Templar. Their commander just threw his head back and let out an angry laugh.

"High orbit Science Vessel is going to let us know everything we need to. So just sit tight. The only place you four are going, is a body bag!"

"What? An execution out in the middle of the desert?" Crick asked.

Fahren paused cocked his head to the side and began to pace. He was thinking. He was thinking up a very painful way to kill us. Something so cruel it was just the embodiment of space. Lifeless, devoid of any feeling. I don't know how long he moved back and forth like that. But I did remember when he turned and put his hands on his hips.

"I'm leaving you four out here. In the desert. You can walk off your sentence. The sun or the Zerg or whatever else is out here will make short work of you. The only way you'd escape from this is if I came back to get you."

Oh shit. He was going to leave us out here unarmed in middle of the shifting sands. With the Zerg moving in all around us... oh god... oh god... oh god...

"Nice of you to do that boss." Scratch said sarcastically.

"Humph. So the killing machine does have a little soul left in him. Now I know why you went along with these bastards."

With that, Fahren turned away and called down a Dropship. He did leave plenty of guys to make sure we didn't try anything and once they dug the truck out of the smoking crater and got it road ready again, they were off. All we could do, with the Siege Tank pointing it's Shock Cannon in our direction was watch them and suck the fumes of that rickety old truck. I had to close my eyes as the sand kicked up from the Dropship and the fleeing vehicles got in my eyes. By the time I had rubbed them enough to get the sand out and looked up, they were gone. Scratch was first to move and stood up. He looked around for awhile and then shrugged. Crick and Orange stood up as well. But I stayed on the ground.

"God damn... the desert... we'll never make it..." I realized.

It was just sand and rocks and canyons in every direction. I looked to see they were walking, going somewhere...

"Where are you guys going?" I stuttered.

"Away from you Raleigh. We'll live longer." Crick answered.

My heart almost stopped beating.

"What!? You don't mean to tell me... you believe him!? Infested? Me? I'm a nobody! Why would the Zerg screw around with me! I'm a nobody! A nobody on a nobody planet!"

They just kept walking, and I stood up to follow them. That's when Crick turned around and put his fists up like he wanted to punch me good. I stopped immediately.

"Look Raleigh! Even though our boss just backstabbed us, we'd trust him more than some guy we never met before."

I took one more step and nearly tripped over something. It was my revolver. Quickly, I swooped down and picked it up. Cocked the hammer back, and aimed it at Crick's forehead.

"What the-"

"Shut up! No one move! Specially you Scratch! Cloak and I'll wax him!"

"What if I don't care?" Scratch asked.

Geez... what a time to develop a mouth. I thought this guy was silent?

"Look, I don't want to hurt you guys... I just don't want to be left alone... Out here... in the middle of nowhere..."

I couldn't aim my gun anymore as I realized just what I was going up against and fell to my knees. None of them tried to disarm me even though it probably would have been a cake walk and just stared. They knew I was too unstable to pose any threat.

"Raleigh... you could be Infested. Do you know what that means?"

"Yeah... I could be a Zerg magnet... But we don't have the truck anymore... we shouldn't be bothered right?"

They didn't have any answers and just looked off into the distance.

"Let's just... walk..." Orange decided for us.

So that's what we did. Just walked across the hot desert, one foot step at a time. Sand blowing in our faces and everything. Some time later it was dark now. Night time. We had to rely on Crick and Orange's suit lights. It was maybe a lighted view a couple feet ahead of us, but it wasn't much. Other than that, it was just like that tunnel before, pitch black. We walked and walked and walked some more in complete silence. There was nothing to say. Well, maybe to complain about the heat which seemed to triple when we were outside the truck. Even when the sun went down, it was still f#$ing hot out.

Just when we thought we might as well just sit down and die, we saw some lights on the horizon. Hell, any light out in the middle of that darkness would have been a beacon. A regular light at the end of the tunnel. All of us just stopped dead in our tracks when we saw it.

"What is it?" I said for all of us.

"Some kind of vehicle... flood lights... possibly search lights..." Scratch reported as his goggles tried to provide a better view.

"Oh god, I hope it's some crazy hick who lives on the fringe and cooks Zerglings for breakfast..." Orange said as we all began to pick up our pace.

"I hope it's some guy who got a flat and needs some help changing the tire."

"Shut up Crick, no one uses tires anymore."

"Screw you Orange."

It almost felt like we were normal again, with Orange and Crick bickering over nothing like they usually did. I felt better already. Well, I felt better until we reached the source of the lights and saw it was that damn truck again. We couldn't seem to escape it.

"Oh, hell **no**." Crick nearly yelled.

The truck was slightly turned with his blinkers on. There was gunshots and alien slime all over the place. Terran bodies were all over the place, along with some black marks on the ground. Scratch took an interest in those pretty quickly as the rest of us just looked on. From what I could tell, it looked like someone took a giant knife and took a couple cracks at the trailer.

"Protoss were here..." Scratch told us while moving from black mark to black mark. "Recently..."

"How do you know?"

"Dead Protoss don't leave bodies. Well at least the **really** dead Protoss don't."

"What's that supposed to mean? The really dead?" I was confused.

Scratch just ignored me and kept going.

"Their Psi energies are too strong. When they get killed, most disappear in a burst of energy. The only thing left, is a black mark on the ground."

"Shit. They the ones who hacked the truck and these guys up?" Orange asked.

"Don't be stupid. Warp blades ain't that big..."

That's when we saw a pile of... something... It could have been a person. We weren't sure. Of course, that's when we realized this pile... was a crushed Terran. Someone had stomped half of these guys into the ground. A couple others, were cut in two. Crick gulped while I was pondering this. The color drained from his face.

"It's an Ultralisk..." He muttered.

Well... you know... I could be really surprised right now. But I already found out a long time ago, we're in for the worst of the worst out here.

"Where'd it go if it killed everyone?" Orange asked.

"Hard to drive a truck with Kaiser Blades I guess." Crick muttered. "Maybe it's going after guys who tried to run."

We got silent. Scratch was still poking around the areas where the Protoss supposedly died, but he was quiet for the most part. Out in the darkness of that desert, that truck looked like a bunker. Something where we could hole up and think for awhile. Hell, we had been driving it for so long. Escaping death a couple times here and there... it was almost another guy we were running with. We cared for the truck because it kept us moving toward safety. The truck cared for us because it if was caught by any Zerg or Protoss, it'll be scraped for sure. It wasn't alive and had no AI to talk to, but god damn if it didn't feel like another helpless wretch out in the middle of this mess.

"Ready for more bad news?" Scratch said suddenly.

Huh?

"I counted at least ten of those marks for dead Protoss. Now, they could have all been Dark Templar or some other Protoss but the point is... Look around. See any Zerg bodies?"

There were none... I already had a bad feeling where this was going.

"The only Zerg Ultralisk I know that can take on Toss and Terran without getting itself killed or severely wounded is a-"

"Don't say it man! That's f#$ing impossible!" Orange interrupted.

"Shut up Orange." Crick snapped.

It was clear to me they already knew what Scratch was going to say. But I didn't. So... I had to swallow my tongue and ask out of fear.

"What were you going to say?"

"Torrasque." Scratch laughed like he had remembered an old friend. "The advanced Zerg Ultralisk strain. We first saw it on Char, it was protecting the Overmind."

"How tough are we talking?" I stuttered.

"It's unstoppable."

"Bullshit!" Orange yelled. "We blew it to hell a couple of times."

"Yeah, we did didn't we?" Crick began with a smart tone. "Except when we did, there were rows of Siege Tanks and Battlecruisers firing on it. What do we have? Fists? Oh my god, don't even go there."

Crick turned around in anger to catch a gun before it hit his face. Scratch had been scavenging for weapons. But the weapon he handed to Crick didn't look like the Gauss Rifle I saw most Marines carry. It had a pretty big stock, and some kind of pump on it.

"Holy shit. Is this what I think it is? An Assault Shotgun?"

"That could put a hole in the Torrasque." Orange said confidently.

"Bullshit. It'll probably tickle the damn thing. No, much better on lighter targets."

He was aiming the weapon into the air as I looked it over. It must have been my facial expression, because the next thing they said was...

"Some guys call it the Tailbone. They call it that because if you don't fire it the right way, you land on your ass and bust your tailbone." Crick laughed.

Pretty soon they stole some dead Firebats' tanks and hooked it up to Orange's suit. They didn't dare offer me any heavy weaponry, mostly because I'd probably shoot my foot off if I tried. A Gauss Rifle, is not a handgun. Something a drunk buddy of mine demonstrated a couple years ago when he wanted me to empty the clip and show off his new rifle. Yeah, I shot a couple trees and some rocks, but not the target he set up on the side of this derelict building. Probably a laugh compared to Scratch's sharp shooting with a Canister Rifle... and somehow he found one. Looks like someone didn't want to dispose of a weapon like that and kept it after taking it from him.

And we didn't even have to talk about getting back in the truck. It was our only way out of this desert. Even if it was a Zerg magnet. We had to take it while the taking was good. It really didn't feel different. I drove, and the trio took their original positions. The only difference now was the fact that Fahren is probably wondering why he lost contact with the truck. Hopefully, we wouldn't see that asshole again...

"Well, take two..." I sighed.

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Running of the Zerg


	7. Chapter 7: Running of the Zerg

-Starcraft

--Dead on Delivery

---Chapter 7: Running of the Zerg

It was funny to see daytime. Mostly because we all needed sleep but couldn't because there were so many people after us now. We'd just have to suffer insomnia for awhile, until this was over. Of course... man... the road looked like a gray blob surrounded by two other yellow blobs if I didn't blink a lot. The sky just disappeared. And it took forever to focus on the things closest to the truck. Then there was the nodding off sometimes... Crick hit me plenty to get my eyes on the road and not the floor of the truck. Speaking of the truck, I hope this thing has gas to spare, because we had really gotten off the road. Without Zerg or Toss' or some crazy paranoid guy trying to kill us, we would have probably been done by now. Of course, I can't forget what a bad judge of time I am.

The bloodshed that had single handedly given us the truck was right before this long cliff where the road became a toothpick and the view made you feel like you were driving on the edge of the world. Man, if we met Zerg on this road, we'd be driving off into oblivion for sure. There was no doubt. I'm sure Crick and the rest of them would have agreed if they weren't so damn tired at the time.

"Aw... How much longer to Anchor Rock? I'm really getting tired of fleeing for my life." I muttered.

Crick heard me and yawned.

"After this is Deep Canyon. Really original name I know, but it's appropriate. Anchor Rock is right on the other side."

"Thank #$%ing God man." Orange muttered.

The rest of the road alongside the cliff was no big deal. Nothing happened, which didn't make me feel any better. If anything, every moment that passed where nothing happened, made me more and more insecure. Almost as if we were wondering what the Zerg were waiting for. They could devour planets without sleeping or doing any of the other habits most creatures needed to survive. I felt, as if they could have picked us out of the desert at any time. I mean... they waxed Fahren's truck guys... left... and... what the hell were they doing now? Getting a tan? I mean really...

Of course, then there **was **Protoss out here. Maybe they were duking it out with the Zerg Brood after us? Oh man... that would be great! We could slip right by as the alien weirdoes kick the shit out of each other. It was possible wasn't it? I mean really. Protoss are tough. They could probably buy us lots of time! ...but who am I kidding? The same Zerg that beat them a couple weeks ago was after us! The Zerg of Zerg...

"Yo, Raleigh. What's going on man?" Orange asked.

He was making reference to my grip of the wheel. I was shaking so hard that the truck had begun to drift back and forth gently.

"I... I... got a bad feeling." I stuttered.

"Join the club punk. Of course, I shouldn't really call you a punk anymore. You got skills. And that makes you somebody with us."

"Doesn't sound very UED-ish. I heard they were all about duty and loyalty."

"Yeah well... we aren't true blue UED guys. We were forced into their squad when they raided a shipyard. We all had graveyard shift and... well, what can I say? Timing."

"So... You're actually Dominion then?"

"Hell, we've changed sides so many times, we just consider ourselves on our own side." Crick cut in. "that's more or less what it's really like out here. We do favors, take jobs, and carry out some personal crap, but we never say we're here to stay."

Sounds good to me. It almost sounds better to be drifters. What could be a universal power one-day is the next day's trash. The UED made a great example of this. They came in acting like they owned the galaxy, and walked out with their heads in hand. Even Emperor Mengsk didn't last. Hell, it could be a matter of days before Kerrigan takes a dive. Who knows out here? It's the furthest reaches of space.

"Hey, Raleigh, cut the engine." Crick ordered suddenly. "Scratch thought he heard something'."

We came to a stop in the middle of this plateau. I could see the canyon off in the distance. We were so close... why stop now? My imagination took off. The Zerg? Are they coming to kill us before we escape for good? That figures! Or maybe it's the Toss? To give us a death sentence for getting caught with their property? Oh man... I just hope Scratch hurries this little pit stop up. Every second we weren't moving, was just making me feel like we were asking to get killed... I could see him too, the Ghost on top of the trailer looking off into the distance... for something.

It was quiet in the cab. I could hear Crick's headset crackle when Scratch spoke to him, but I couldn't make it out. All I saw was his eyes widen, his hand slowly drop to his side, and then clutch the shotgun. Orange whipped his head in my direction and I slowly turned to look too... There was nothing out there. No reason to look so worried, but there was that feeling. It turned into a sickness. I felt bad, physically bad. I started the engine up again and started to press the accelerator when we all heard it. Zerg. They sounded like they were right on top of us. But we couldn't see them. The more I made the truck move forward they louder it got.

That's when they erupted from the ground. A couple dozen of those Zergling bastards. They were burrowed! No wonder! We couldn't even scream in surprise. That's how sudden it was. Hydralisks and some other Zerg I didn't care to recognize popped out too. By now I was stomping the pedal and cursing at the truck for moving so slow. It had to move. It just had to! It had to move **right now**! Crick pointed his shotgun out the window, and gave some of those SOBs something to chew on. Orange couldn't do much except lean forward and fire flames out the window when Crick was reloading. I could hear Scratch's Canister Rifle going off... but not for long as some new tortured roar drowned everything out.

The rearview mirror didn't do justice. It was huge. I could see a leg, and maybe a long curved blade as it stomped past the back of the truck and began to circle us. It shook the ground, rattled the cab and caused the other Zerg to back away from the truck as if giving it room. I had no real idea. All I know was this was a key moment in my life. I got to meet the Torrasque. With it's red carapace and it's gigantic Kaiser Blades. Somehow, I just knew it was larger than standard Ultralisks. That it was just as horrible as Crick and Orange said it was. That it was out here to clean us up once and for all. Whatever limited definition the Zerg had for mercy, there'd be none of it now...

"Go Raleigh go! For the love of all that's holy! **Move it**!"

That was also the first time I heard Crick talk like he cared about anything. It figures it would be his own life that would bring the emotion out of his hardened head. But call me a hypocrite, I was just as hysterical as he was, probably even more so since I hadn't been a tough marine.

"Oh god! This is it!" Orange yelled. "That son of a bitch is here to collect!"

I whipped my head to our right to see it running right alongside the truck. It let out another roar that almost caused me to lose grip of the wheel. It hurt my ears, and I wanted to cover them badly. But the wheel needed to be attended to. We were coming up on that canyon and the ground was beginning to slope. The truck went a bit faster, but so did that Torrasque thing. In fact, it was probably faster than the truck anyway so what the hell am I doing comparing speed for?

"Hold on to somethin'!" Crick barked.

This is when that overgrown Ultralisk smashed itself into the side of the truck. It was so violent, I thought the whole truck was about to roll. I just remember watching the road tilt and Orange sliding into me. I didn't even see what happened to Scratch, but I could only assume he hung on somehow. Crick cursed up a storm and the Torrasque backed away to slam us again, seeing how the truck would take a couple cracks to tumble.

"Oh shit!"

But a miracle happened. We reached the canyon, and the clearance wasn't wide enough for the Torrasque to keep running up alongside us. It took an outcropping head on and lost. It took me awhile to realize, and when I did, I started laughing. But the two guys next to me just shook their heads. I saw why soon enough. Through the mirror, I could see the Torrasque was unscathed. It hardly even slowed down. It just made it's way around the outcropping and resumed it's chase along with the other Zerg after us.

Damn, it looked like we were outrunning a river of alien monstrosities. You couldn't see where the little bastards ended. They just looked like one solid mass with the exception of the Torrasque due to it's color and sheer size. Whatever Zerg didn't make way got crushed in a blind fury. You could hear some Zerg cry out in agony as the Torrasque turned them into pancakes. But despite this strange form of friendly fire, you could tell none of them cared. All they cared about was killing us and if anything, the Torrasque just drove them harder.

"Shit! Scratch! Do something about those little bastards behind us! They're gaining!" Crick yelled.

#$%! I didn't even notice. They're were Zerglings running up alongside the wheels, and taking swings at them with their claws. Most got caught and were crushed by the tires instantly. But stopping us wasn't the goal. They weren't there to give us a flat. The goal was to slow us down enough so that their big brother Torrasque could take us apart limb by limb.

"Goddamn! They're throwin' themselves under the tires!" Crick reported. "They're slowin' us down!"

The sound of Scratch's Canister Rifle never sounded so good before. He sniped those up front, so when their dead bodies fell to the ground, they'd trip up the other Zerglings and Hydralisks behind them. It was a good plan. But it didn't do a thing to stop the Torrasque which just steamrolled anything that didn't stay ahead of it. It'd do us in the same way if we couldn't keep this truck rolling at a steady rate down the canyon. Of course, that's assuming there would be a canyon left to drive through. Whenever that Torrasque thing roared, dirt and small rocks fell around us like rain. Who knew when boulders would come crashing down...

"Little bastards!" Crick yelled as he fired off his shotgun. "Come a little closer! I got something for you! I got something for each and every one of you!"

You could see Crick paint the sides of the canyon with Zergling blood and whatever else they had for internal organs. But as many as he killed wasn't enough to keep them away for long. The rearview mirror became more and more depressing as Zerg took up more and more space. They were just moving in despite our best attempts to hold them back. Is this what it feels like to be overrun?

"We're gonna get crushed..." I muttered.

The whole truck shook like never before when the Torrasque took a crack at it with it's indestructible blades. I was half surprised to find the trailer was still holding together. Seemed to me like anything would fall apart under the weight of that thing behind us. I couldn't believe the trailer was still in one piece...

"Here it comes again!"

But the Torrasque never got to take a second crack at the trailer. Scratch had caught it's attention and earned it's wrath. It began to swing its blades along the top of the trailer to cut our Ghost friend in half. Good thing he was an Olympic gymnast or some crap like that, because he dodged it all. Then he cloaked, and the Torrasque remembered the truck it was trying to stop. Oh well, so much for that maneuver. Because even when Scratch shot it in the face with his rifle, it only seemed to annoy it. In the face! I mean, for the love of God... this thing was made of titanium...

"Hydralisk!" Orange yelled.

"Big deal... I see lots of them all over us." I yelled back.

"No! I mean! Hydralisk! There!"

I looked out my window to see one of those ugly mother #$%ers getting ready to attack with it's spines or whatnot. Of course, I had pretty much lost hope at that point, so it wasn't out of the question to drive like a suicidal mad man. I swerved the truck to the left and crushed the Hydralisk up against the canyon wall along with some of his ugly cousins. But I wasn't done yet, so I swerved on over to the right and crushed some more Zerg. This is only bad when you're concerned about speed, and we were. But I had figured at that point we were dead no matter what happened. Nothing was gonna get that Torrasque off our back. Nothing. It was going to roll the truck, and we were going to die.

"Yeah, let's kill them all!" I sang while swerving left again.

"Hey Crick! I think Raleigh lost it!" Orange said in a frantic manner.

Crick shot a glance at me and shook his head.

"He's fine. Let the man drive."

I swear, whenever that juiced-up Ultralisk took a crack at the trailer, I felt like my brain was going to fall out of my skull. That thing was brutal. Obviously its one and only strong point. Zerg never were the subtle type anyway...

"Shiat!"

The next time the Torrasque attacked, it got a good grip of the trailer with its awesome blades. Now, it was shaking us like a dog with a chew toy. That damn thing was a perfect earthquake simulator because soon you couldn't keep upright if you wanted too. You could almost hear the metal twist as it finally let go and slammed the trailer back to the ground. Now we were really losing speed...

"I think it finally broke something important!" I cried out.

"We're dragging the rear bumper!" Crick reported. "Scratch says the whole back of the trailer is shot to hell!"

At the same time, we could see the end of the canyon. In the distance, was the skyline of Anchor Rock. Holy shit. We were actually going to make it out of the canyon in one piece! ...should have known better than to jump to conclusions at that point. The minute we cleared the canyon and came out into open desert once again, the Zerg had a little somethin' waiting for us. I couldn't believe it. This Cerebrate might as well been a master strategist. We could all see the three twisted Defilers pop out of the ground. They had been waiting for us.

"Oh God! Defilers! Defilers! **Defilers!**" Crick yelled at the top of his lungs.

He said it as if wanting me to turn out of the way, but there was no time. They shot out of the ground, launched their toxic red crap all over the front of the cab and then disappeared back underground before we could run them over. Now I could hear this crackling sound... a sound like... something was eating the cab away. Like a sizzle. I looked up to see the metal frame of the cab begin to smoke. Oh my God, the Defiler toxin was eating away at the whole truck!

"It's Defiler Plague! We got problems Crick! The civilian don't got a suit!"

I looked over to Orange and Crick while smoke began to fill the cab.

"What does that mean?" I said frantically.

"It means the minute that shit touches you, you're going to experience every single disease known to man! It's gonna worse than any crap you could catch out here! You gotta bail! Before the toxins work its way inside!"

What? Leave them now? After all we'd been through? They'd saved my life whether I'd admit it at the time or not. If anything, I'd feel more obligated to die with them...

"No... I can't... you guys are gonna get killed!"

"Well you're gonna go first if you don't get out right now!"

"But you...."

"We don't got time for this sentimental shit Raleigh! Get the #$% out of the truck!" Crick ordered. "You saved me and now I'm saving you! Get lost!"

"You guys are the only friends I got out here!" I admitted. "I'm a small town loser. I don't know anyone! Lots of people pass through... but we're in this-"

I couldn't even finish my sentence when Orange leaned over to open the door. I could see the sands rushing by the truck as we sped across the desert. Then I felt a boot to my side. I swore it could have broken a rib. But that pain was minor when compared to me falling out of the truck and rolling across the sand. I must have said every curse word in the dictionary as I came to a stop face up. I sat there for a couple of seconds and then looked off to my right to see the Zerg horde heading right for me. I curled up into the fetal position and just prayed to whatever god still cared that it wouldn't be painful...

Of course, I have a way of making any situation overdramatic. The Zerg were still fixated on the truck and its contents, and they blew right past without so much as growling at me. It was crazy I know... but... why did they have to ignore me like that... I thought Zerg killed everything they came in contact with... I mean... I did drive the truck... Don't I deserve a little attention? I'm a loser... but I'm not **that** much of a loser...

Speaking of the truck, I could see it swerve away from me and head further off into the desert. They drove **away** from Anchor Rock. **Away** from it. But I guess I could see why, I mean... the Defiler toxin had ruined the cab and some of the trailer. Whatever crap they launched at us, it was as corrosive as hell. It ate away at everything. That meant the engine, the tires, the cab was going to be slop in a couple more minutes. Smoke rose through the air and I swore it was going to burst into some violent flame. But it didn't. They just kept going, and disappeared into the horizon with a million Zerg on their asses. The last thing I saw, was Scratch coming out of cloak with his rifle ready to go.

The pain of getting kicked out of a moving vehicle, the frustration of losing three guys who weren't that bad... I had tears in my eyes. Stupid #$%ing Zerg! It was their fault...

Then I turned toward Anchor Rock. Derringer... No... It was **his** fault!

Samuel Derringer... that bastard.

His death was going to be so graphic... I was gonna make Universe News Network headlines...

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Payday


	8. Chapter 8: Payday

-Starcraft

--Dead on Delivery

---Chapter 8: Payday

I walked into Anchor Rock. It took me half a day to trudge through the sands and reach the road that led to the city limits. I bet it struck people odd, to see someone walk in from the desert, covered from head to toe with sand and blood. Covered in bruises and looking so calm and collected. I think some people asked if I was alright. There were some Marines hanging around too, but all they did was stare at me. They might have said something, but I didn't hear them, and even if I did. I wouldn't have answered. I had an asshole to kill and wasn't up for waiting

Anchor Rock was everything I thought it was from the stories I heard. There was a Kel-Morian army in town. I could see the Barracks and the Command Center and the Factory. There was also plenty of civilian buildings like bars and shopping centers and used car dealerships. On a normal day, it would have been eye candy. I would have been all over that place. It was so big, and so lively. I've never seen so many people before. But today was not a normal day. My week, had not been a normal week. I was not having a good life.

I figured if Derringer was as high class as he struck me on the first day we met. He'd be living it up in The Scraper. It was a big multistory hotel with a signature bar most everyone knew off the top of their head. Even from a distance, anyone could see the cheap neon sign flashing "The Defiler Lounge". I wouldn't think anything of it. But I had seen real Defilers. Even though the owners meant to say sleazy people hang out there sometimes, I don't think they realized the gravity of a real Defiler. Anyway, the lounge was some addition to the left of the main entrance of The Scraper. Normally when visiting new places, I'd hit the bar first thing. But not today.

My feet were already smarting from the walk into town, so the soft carpeting of The Scraper made entering the hotel all the more impressive. Like I said before, those bar stories did not disappoint. When you think "Rich an Famous", think The Scraper. Chandeliers and scarlet couches and... God man. Everything. But that's the Kel-Morian Combine for you. They spend a lot of time ripping up worlds to get rich. And this is how they spend it. I bet half the residents in this place were Kel-Morian grunts or commanders. And I bet Derringer knew them all. I had never asked who he worked for, but it was easy to see now.

The front desk was pretty far back. I had to pass a lot of onlookers who were pretty surprised to see such a guy looking like myself enter. All of them got quiet as I moved toward the front. I also had to pass elevators and staircases that took up most of the lobby. Along with those fancy waiting areas and snack dispensers. The guy at the desk was this tall dude in a red uniform acting like he owned the place. He kind of shuttered when he caught a look at me in my shabby and conspicuous shape.

"Hello..." He said slowly, still trying to make a judgement call on me. "Can I... help you?"

He looked me up in down in a sickened expression. I could already tell this guy probably never leaves the hotel.

"Derringer." I said flatly.

"Excuse me?"

"Samuel. Derringer. Where is he?"

"I don't know... who you are sir... but I can say that Mr. Derringer won't be interested in seeing you."

I cracked a small grin.

"Oh, I think he would."

"I'm sorry. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

I figured he didn't know my week. So I didn't feel to bad about educating him.

"Listen to me, and you listen good. I have been... hunted by the Protoss. Chased down by the Zerg and got shot at by other Terrans who don't know what they're talking about. I had to walk through a desert of shit to get to this colony. So if you think that your attitude, and your little red suit is going to keep me from finding out which room Samuel Derringer is in... you gotta another thing coming."

When I finished my little speech, I was an inch from his face and leaning forward on the desk. I had thought it silent when I entered? Oh boy, it wasn't silent until I stopped talking. Now that... that was silence. Mr. Red Suit here... I think he pissed his pants. I really did. Because before I knew it, he had told me which room Derringer was in, and even gave me a duplicate key card. No doubt he'd suck it up later and call some sort of security. But the initial shock of going off on him, that should keep him grounded for awhile. All I know is that I wouldn't be here for long.

Derringer was at some suite in the middle of the hotel. He could probably afford top level, but then he wouldn't be across from the Starport in the back of The Scraper. What a wily bastard. Too bad he didn't expect me to show up. The hallways had the same nice look, except you could notice the hallways looked a lot like a ship or something. A lot of red and gold coloring. Even in the elevators. But enough about The Scraper. Derringer... it was time to... pay up, as they say. And I wasn't really interested in money anymore.

Room 500. That was funny. He probably used his own room number to decide how much credits would rope someone in for his death march. They keycard worked fine, and I drew my revolver before going into the room. It was a nice room. Probably the nicest living area I'd ever been in throughout my entire life. It was quiet too, and for a second, I thought that the front desk man had given me a bogus room. Then Derringer entered from some kitchen room with a glass of scotch.

"Thank you, you can leave the tray on the-"

Click, I readied my revolver. I could see the color drain out of his face. Any chances of BSing me on the death sentence was gone now. He had deliberately sent us out into that desert to die.

"Why so surprised Derringer? You did hire me to drive the truck here, right? 500,000 credits?"

He didn't say anything, only looked me up and down and blinked a couple of times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. It felt good. Yes, it felt good to see him so stunned. I was alive, that crooked bastard wanted me to die but I was alive. His silence was like fine wine and I couldn't get enough of it. Eventually, he downed the whole glass and seemed to straighten up. He looked a little bit more relaxed and collected. I think he almost grinned, but soon bit his lip.

"Why were we hunted by the Toss and Zerg? What the #$% were we carrying you smug son of a bitch!" I demanded.

"There is something you have to understand Mr. Raleigh, when the Zerg attacked Moria, it was a brutal wake up call. Before, we counted on the Confederates, and the so-called Emperor Arcturus to allow us to go about our business. And we thought it would work that way. But the Zerg are too dangerous to count on someone else for protection. Our armies were pretty much crushed by the time the Queen of Blades was done with us."

Moria... heh. That's the Combine base of operations. When I thought about it, that story about Zerg raiding their home planet became all the more sweeter. These bastards deserved every bit of it.

"Commander Gen Mah Sakai began to demand countermeasures for these Zerg creatures. Usually, we would rely on an assortment of prototype Nuclear Weapons but...

"But what?" I pressed, squeezing him for all he was worth.

"But we had heard a story. A story about a Protoss weapon that wiped every single Zerg unit from the face a planet. We investigated and found out that every word of it was true. They had found crystals that generated so much power, it was enough to cause an explosion that enveloped an entire planet and the only thing that died was Zerg. Do you know what kind of advantage we'd have if this weapon was in our hands?"

"Oh, I could imagine. I could imagine you guys going around wiping a planet clean of inhabitants, then wiping it clean of minerals. What do you think you are? Some sort of guardian? You guys are first class assholes. The only thing you guys care about is how many minerals you have in the bank."

"A crude statement, but not too far from the truth." Derringer laughed. "Anyway, I headed the special research team involved in finding this power source and figuring out how to use it for our own means. For all intensive purposes, we were successful."

"You mean you sent your Ghost agents down to the planet for a little hit and run."

"Pretty close Mr. Raleigh. We utilized a couple of nuclear missiles to get them away from the places they were keeping the crystals. It was some gigantic temple-"

"What the hell did you just say?" I was stunned. "You nuked the Protoss? Are you guys #$%ing nuts!?"

He must have realized the gravity of what his guys had done... but he didn't seem to care at all. I mean... judging from the stories I've heard. If you even thought about launching any sort of missile in the direction of a Protoss world, you might as well take care of your funeral arrangements because you were as good as dead.

"We couldn't take the original source. But we got something that would work just as well. Those crystals in the back of the truck, were more or less ones that had absorbed the energies of the ones inside the temple." He paused to crack a smile about something. "We got them off the planet and began to conduct our experiments. It lasted for about a week, when members of our research team began to turn up dead. Dark Templar had begun to pay visits to our facilities. Next thing we knew, the same Zerg that had raided Moria was on the move. We had stirred up a hornet's nest as they used to say."

I stopped him and began to smile, unable to suppress my anger. Have you ever done that before? You were so angry you smiled? It's weird as hell, but it was happening to me now.

"So let me get this straight. You got the genius idea, to pay someone to get caught with their hands in the cookie jar... Why me? Why all of Fahren's men?"

"You should know Mr. Raleigh. The Protoss are a punitive race. Even if we left their crystals in some far off location for them to find, they'd still hunt for the ones responsible. But what if we framed some random mercenary group and some nobody civilian. The Protoss don't keep up on current events. We could easily churn out some story about you being the leader of a pirate group or whatnot. It wouldn't be hard with you dead, since you wouldn't be able to say anything otherwise."

"You are one loony bastard." I laughed.

"And it would have worked... if it weren't for the Zerg. We were surprised to learn those crystals could change their normal strains into advanced ones. It only takes causal exposure to trigger the transformation. We found this out by accident when three Hydralisks entered one of our labs and came out Hunter Killers. Tell me, how many times did those slippery bastards save you from the Protoss?"

"None." I spat at him. "We were too busy running for our lives to get caught by them. Or the Zerg for that matter. Too busy crawling through a desert of shit to deliver shit that you set us up with!"

Our talk was over. I pointed my revolver at his forehead and pulled the hammer back. Never really killed anyone before, but I didn't feel like I had to think about it for long. This was going to be messy... Bam! Someone kicked the door open, I spun around to see a Marine enter with his Gauss Rifle ready to go. Oh shit! It's the security crew! I wasted way too much time chatting it up with Derringer. God damn it! I gotta make everything such a big scene...

"See that man?" Derringer shouted hysterically. "Shoot him!"

I didn't even try to shoot first and dove behind a nearby couch. The Marine opened up on the room and began to shoot the hell out of everything. I covered my head, and my ears as things began to burst into crap as the bullets tore them up. When the gunfire stopped, I looked up to see Derringer retreat into his bedroom. There was a thud as the Marine dropped his empty clip to the floor, and I took that moment to get up and dove for the bedroom door. Once inside, I knew those walls wouldn't be enough to stop 8mm spikes from getting through and frantically looked for cover. What I found, was Derringer making the slip through some second door to his room.

Without thinking, I followed after him. Now we were doing the 100 yard dash though the hotel corridors. That Marine and whoever else was with him would be along shortly, so it made me run like I never ran before. The doors flew past and suddenly I felt like I was in a cartoon. It was only when we reached some emergency exit did I realize just how far we had run. Derringer and I had just run the width of The Scraper and were now heading down an old-as-dirt fire escape. You could see the whole colony from that floor and hell, we were really high up. I mean... **really** high up.

Since the fire escape went straight down in a corkscrew shape, I paused to take a shot at Derringer and let one fly. It hit the railing he had his hand on and bounced off somewhere.

"Oh god! Holy shit! Raleigh!" Derringer roared. "**No one #$%s with the Combine!**"

Had I not been hunted by the Zerg and Protoss, I would have agreed whole heartedly. Most people who tried to mess with the Kel-Morian Combine ended up in very small pieces at the bottom of a very empty mine. They had some Ghost agents that were rejected from the Confederates. Even rejected Ghosts were deadly Ghosts. I just hoped they didn't have any in Anchor Rock at the time. I hoped to God they didn't have in Anchor Rock. Or this would be one short revenge.

I didn't take any more shots at him as we ran down the escape. Mostly because a quartet of Marines were above me with weapons set on overkill. Holy shit, what was I doing out here? Unfortunately for me, logic was on sleep mode, while anger had been shot through the roof. As of that moment, I was going to kill him if it was the last thing I did. And I believed in every word of that statement... At least, I believed in it until I reached the bottom of the fire escape and found Derringer running past a Kel-Morian Goliath unit. Oh God!

"Freeze intruder!" The almost robotic voice of the pilot shouted.

You guys know this is the Koprulu Sector right? So you should know that whenever someone yells "freeze", they aren't doing it so they can take you alive. They're doing it in hopes you're stupid enough to comply so they can blow you the hell away that much easier. I knew the drill, and kept running while the Twin Autocannons on the Goliath lit up and began to blow holes in the ground. I could only yell "shit shit shit!" all the way to the Spaceport entrance where Derringer was running. God! I feel so stupid looking back on this! Running past Goliaths? Screwing with the Combine? Only a mental case would do this!

Anyway, I made it into the Spaceport without taking a bullet the size of a watermelon in the face. The Marines after me stopped at the entrance, probably to block it off and prepare to encircle it with backup. Man, I was going to be so trapped at the end of this... But for now, I kept running. Derringer was going to die no matter what. Even if it was going to be short. I owed him that much for the fun out in the middle of the Burnside desert. That bastard... I followed him past all sorts of waiting rooms with people trying to get a shuttle either off the planet or to another colony on Arid Col. They seemed to enjoy the frantic chase that ripped through their areas and only watched.

The Spaceport officials didn't know what to make of our little escapade and simply looked on dumbfounded. Therefore, it was easy to make it to the tarmac of the Spaceport. This is where Derringer was going, he was going to try and get the first Dropship out of here, even if it meant commandeering it. Damn! If he got off the planet and reached some of his Kel-Morian buddies, I'd be so screwed, so screwed that all the times I was screwed before would look pleasant. I had to stop him.

We got to the lifts in the place, where he took right and I took left. Man, I swear, I must have broken that button. If that elevator went as fast as I pressed that button, I would have been in space by then. I took the time to reload my revolver and looked at the little lights that showed where you were. Soon as we got to the tarmac I was going to blast him. He wouldn't have anywhere to run so long as it was clear. Oh god, I hope there aren't any Dropships en route or on the tarmac...

-To be continued...

--Next Chapter: Signed and Sealed


	9. Chapter 9: Signed and Sealed

-Starcraft

--Dead On Delivery

---Chapter 9: Signed and Sealed

The minute I stepped off the lift, I could hear some sort of automatic weapon go off. Bullets fell all around the elevator and I dove toward some crates nearby. Damn, Derringer had finally worked up the nerve to fire off his automatic handgun. It only took him the length of his hotel room to the Starport! But he wasn't a very good shot, I mean sheez... he must have rattled off 25 rounds and didn't even come close. I could see him when he went to reload, he was on the other side of the tarmac, using the loading ramp of a Dropship for cover. Oh shit! A Dropship! As far as I could tell though, there was no pilot so I still had time.

"Nice going Raleigh! You stupid bastard! This whole Starport is being surrounded as we speak! You don't have anywhere to go now!"

"Neither do you! Asshole!" I shouted back.

Seeing as I stood next to the only way on and off the tarmac, I felt confident that I wasn't blowing smoke with that statement. Now, all I had to do was blow his head off his shoulders and this would be all over... On the other hand, Raleigh wasn't exactly a rock or some Zergling preoccupied with a Marine...

__

Thak thak thak thak thak thak!

Damn! That gun of his was loud!

"This the first time you ever fired that gun off?" I yelled. "You don't even have your eyes open when you shoot!"

He shot back the most pleasant finger of all. I knew then, that Derringer never intended to use his beloved automatic handgun. He's one of those types that like to flaunt it off in bars and casinos and act the part of the tough guy. Hold it out and wave it around, but never even consider firing it off. That's when I knew I could probably rush him without worrying too much about getting shot. I mean... the guy wasn't even looking when he shoots the damn thing! All I had to do was wait for him to reload... and... run for it!

I remember watching him drop his hot empty clip and reaching for another. That's when I began to make a mad dash for the Dropship. My eyes were fixated on his hands as he got the clip in and went to cock it. Then he saw me heading right for him and raised his gun in a panicked manner. I hit the deck as he peppered the air with lead. Oh God I loved being right with those moments. He completely missed, cause I was still alive and wasn't missing a leg or arm. This guy should have spent more time practicing with his gun instead of looking at it...

My hands were over my head as I looked up to see his ghost white expression. I was going to body check him before that new clip could be put in. But he didn't stand his ground next to the Dropship ramp and began to run. I chased him without thinking, and now we were running circles around this Dropship. Once again, I got the feeling I was in some lame cartoon but kept going after him. I knew I could get him eventually... And that's when I went face first into his awaiting fist. God dammit...

Guess he had a bit more of a spine than I thought, and it was a sure bet my nose was broken. Of course, I had too much adrenaline in my body at that point so it felt more like a something brushed by it. I hit the ground and lost grip of my gun... hell, I had almost forgotten about it with all the running and dodging. And Derringer was so pissed, he did too and went to work on me with his fists instead of his handgun. Now we were both into it with knuckles flying and knocking the living daylights out of each other...

"Goddamn you! With your stupid name! And your stupid planet!" Derringer spat as he tried to slam my head up and down against the metal tarmac.

It was lucky for me, that we were fighting so close to the Dropship. Why? Well, cause it was easy to punch him in the face, cause his head to whip back and slam into the metal hull of the transport. He howled in pain as he went to cradle his aching cranium and allowed me to get him off of my chest. It wasn't long until we were on our feet and ready to give each other fight bites. You heard of those before? It's where you punch someone so hard in the mouth, they leave dental impressions in your fists. Not a pretty thing, but at least you know you got em' good.

Man, I could feel the breeze as Derringer swung like he was going for a title. I couldn't say I've ever been in a fist fight before, so I spent some of the time backing away and ducking around. ... I think I liked gunfights better...

"Argg!"

Derringer went wide and I dove for his chest. I hit him head first and we both went tumbling to the ground again. Now we were rolling like barrels, trying to stay as the pinner instead of the pinned. Damn he was tough for a pencil pusher... Somehow we got to the point where I was sitting up, and he was trying to strangle me from behind. I got a good grip of his nose and began to pull, eventually making him let go and howl like someone kicked him in the nuts. He stood up and turned away from me. I took this time to grab my revolver, but when I turned around again, he was heading right for me like an out of control locomotive...

This... was not one of his smarter moves. Turned out we had fought our way to the end of the Starport, and when he went flying toward the ground... we went rolling down the end of the tarmac where a huge drop to the ground awaited us. Over and over again, we rolled until I managed to stop myself with my feet. I still had my gun, but my attempt to stop myself was ruined by Derringer, who soon slammed right into me. He grabbed hold of my hands in an attempt to either wrench my gun free, or just to hold on for dear life. Cause now I was on my stomach, and I could see the edge of the Starport tarmac. I nearly pissed my pants as I caught some vent with my foot and stopped instantly. Derringer kept going and went tumbling off the side...

I almost fell with him, because he was still gripping my wrists. It was the only thing keeping him from falling to his death. Unfortunately for him, the reason why he was holding onto my wrists was because my revolver was in my hands, ready to fire. I was pointing it right at his forehead, and had no choice because he wouldn't let go. This is what I remember from this moment.

Both of us were beat up as hell. Probably the worst beating any of us had taken that far out in the sector. I think my mouth had begun to bleed, and I hoped to god I didn't lose any teeth over this. Derringer looked just as bad, cept' his left eye was partially closed and his nostil was losing red stuff like a leaky faucet.

"Ung... Raleigh..." He grunted.

"You know, it's most likely Scratch, Orange, and Crick all went to hell. Because no one lives with a clean conscious out here." I said slowly. "So when you get to hell, I hope they find you, so they can kick your ass again."

"No!" He gasped.

I pulled the trigger and Derringer's face disappeared. I closed my eyes as he went plunging off the side of the Starport without uttering a sound. I guess it's hard to scream when your face is gone. I didn't move for the longest time after killing him. Just sat there dangling by my feet, almost ready to join him in a little dive off the side of the Starport. But eventually I wormed my way back up to where I could grasp the exhaust vents with my hands, and slowly climbed back up to the tarmac. Oh God... I could have died right there and then. I was so tired...

But something caught my eye when I got back to the tarmac. It was Protoss. Four of them, I think they were Zealots. Standing with their light blade thingers at their sides. I had never been this close to a Protoss I could actually see. The gold suits they wore made my eyes hurt when the sun reflected off of them just right. But I just kept staring at them. I wonder if they would believe me if I told them I just killed the guy who had raided their planet.

"Hey fellas. Funny running into you guys all the way out here. Man, I ain't never seen no Protoss before. Guess I thought you guys would all look a little bit more threatening..."

But who was I kidding? I was petrified. The only thing I could do was keep up my nervous chatting with the aliens who were most likely going to stab me to death.

"So how about this weather. Man, dry all the time..."

I nearly ducked and covered when the front two did a side step. I thought they were going to move in and cleave me. But they didn't. They just allowed some Protoss dressed from head to toe in important looking robes forward. Okay, I didn't have know anything, and I would have figured this was the boss. I think they called them... Executors? Or... was it a Templar? Ah hell, I can't remember, and got bigger problems.

"Look, yeah, I was driving around with some crap that belonged to you." I began to rant, losing my cool. "And as much as I would love to give it back, I can't. You see, I was a greedy bastard who loved money, and I got talked into this really dumb job that involved moving around your crystal things. Anyway, I met some cool guys, who ended up getting killed because all these Zerg were on us..."

I paused just to see if I could make out any expression what so ever. But it was the same thing. Protoss weren't very good at expressing emotions obviously. Because they had no mouth or eyebrows or anything descriptive for that matter. Well, cept their skin color and their eyes, but they don't count.

"So yeah, the Zerg picked up your crystals. And I came here cause I thought I'd kill the guy who did this to me before you or the Torrasque monster got around to killing me. So.. yeah... well... I'm.. uh... done... So if it would be okay... could you not stab me with those swords you got there?"

I don't how long I stood there, bleeding and hurting and nervous as hell, before the Templar in front of me turned toward one of his Zealot guys and said something I didn't understand. The Zealot gave a nod and walked away. Eventually he came back, and brought Scratch, Crick, and Orange along with him. What the hell!

"So, what'd he say?" Crick asked the Templar.

"It was as you Terrans said." The Templar began. "Easily excitable."

"Oh yeah?" Orange asked.

"He also confirms your story."

"Hey!" I interrupted, something I would normally never do if it weren't for this #$ed up day. "What the hell is going on!"

"Perhaps you would like to explain." The Templar offered.

"Don't mind if we do." Crick nodded.

Those three guys I thought were dead walked up to me and gave me a whack to confirm what my senses were telling me.

"You guys... you guys.. were covered by Zerg!" I stuttered.

"Yeah well, we drove a couple more miles before that piece of junk truck crapped out on us. We were shooting the hell out of every Zerg that tried to get in the cab, while the Torrasque rolled us around like a cement mixer."

"Eventually, we ran into our new friends. The Toss over here." Orange pointed out. "They really kicked the shit out of the Torrasque, when proceeded to wax every other Zerg in the area. We thought they were going to kill us too. Good for us we were out of ammo, so couldn't shoot even if we wanted to. So instead of killing us, they took us in."

"We had some words with the Toss guys and told them about Derringer and the truck. They didn't really believe us at the time. They wanted us to stand trial. Then... well... they came here to arrest you too."

I don't see how that cleared all this up...

"You ever heard of Observers Raleigh?" Scratch began. "They had one on your ass the whole time. And you can imagine their surprise when they overheard your conversation with Derringer."

"Holy shit!" I said. "They heard all of that? Then... we're... we're..."

"Off the hook." Crick grinned.

"Shit yeah!" I yelled in the loudest voice I could muster.

Of course, then I recoiled in pain when my wounds flared up again. Oh god... Derringer had really kicked my ass...

"Least you ain't dead." Scratch said again, seemingly to himself.

"At any rate, you Terrans may do what you wish." The Templar explained. "The Protoss no longer have any interest with this planet or its inhabitants."

And then just like that, they disappeared. There was this big whirlpool thing that appeared on top of them before they went bye-bye. Later, I had it explained to me that it was something called Recall... or whatever... So, the Toss were gone. And as far as the Zerg went, they took off after their Torrasque thing was dead. They either went back to Char, or went after the Protoss. But I would never know, or... well... I guess I did care now.

That week after all of this shit went by in a snap. I guess cause I spent most of the time in a first aid station with a nice Medic named Loraine. Oh yeah, that reminds me. The Kel-Morian guys were gone the minute they heard the Toss were coming. Every one of their guys pulled out of that town during the moment when Derringer and I had some words and fists with each other on the Starport. So, Anchor Rock was asshole free. Well, maybe not completely asshole free. There was Crick...

But in all seriousness. I became pretty close friends with Crick, Orange, and even Scratch. ... Okay, I was lying about Scratch. And even if I was his friend, I'd never know with his silent treatment. We almost binged on alcohol in the Defiler Lounge talking about the whole thing. From the truck to the desert, to the mine to the canyon and to Anchor Rock. We had outrun the most brutal Zerg in the sector! Hell, I bet most people couldn't do that if they tried! Well, hell, before I get too big of a head. I have to mention the Protoss... and how insignificant we were when stacked up against the Zerg Swarm...

I guess we weren't exactly the most compelling enemy to take down either...

Oh yeah. What happened to Fahren you say? I think the Toss told Crick and them that Fahren's guys left the planet the minute they caught wind of the Torrasque. I guess even that paranoid weirdo had limits when it came to getting a job done... Thank god. I hope he doesn't come back one day and go off on me for everything... Of course, he probably already forgot about me... But... Enough about all that crap from before...

It was about a week after the Toss came and got their crystal stuff. Crick, Orange, Scratch, and I were all having a little drink, again. They had begun to talk about getting off of Arid Col. And I thought we were getting to that moment when I could finally get back to being a nobody...

"Hell yeah, I'm ready to go." Orange was saying.

"Okay, we'll have to see how much credits we got. I'm sure a Dropship out of this dump is pretty costly. Specially after the Toss and Zerg paid a visit."

"Shouldn't be a problem. Three seats are pretty easy to grab."

Crick finished his beer and shot a strange glance at Orange.

"No, we're gonna need four seats this time."

Huh?

"No way, you want to take Raleigh along with us?"

"Come on. What do you guys think? He's a strange little good luck charm right?"

I was just staring at them as they slowly nodded their heads, and really got into the idea of bringing me along.

"You guys are kidding right?" I said.

"He'd have to agree to it of course." Scratch stated.

"Well?"

Now all eyes were on me. I couldn't believe it.

"Hell yeah, let's get off this piece of shit. I wanna see the sector!"

We began to talk about where to go at that point. But I wasn't really into it. I was already thinking about all those places I heard in all those stories. I wonder if the Zerg really did have a good as grasp as it sounded like. Course, you'd think meeting the Zerg once would be enough for me. But it really was never the same again after they tried to kill me. Almost felt invincible and needed a reality check. Well, I had a feeling I wouldn't get that on Arid Col anymore. I had to go out there, out into the rest of the Koprulu Sector.

"Hey hey hey." Crick said, to calm us down. "There's just one more thing we gotta do."

He turned to me and shot this curious glance.

"It's been bugging me for about, forever now. What is up with your name man?"

I sighed. I was wondering when they'd get around to that...

"Do you guys know how many Billy Joe Bobs there are in the Terran Dominion?"

-End of Story

--Thanks for Reading!


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